It seems the longer people live here, the more inclined they are to stick to their side of the bridge. There’s so much to do, it’s not hard to get around, but its easy to start putting up psychological barriers – to have a gradually shrinking comfort zone as one gets more accustomed to a place and starts falling into routines. Fuck that noise! The BART may not run all night, but there’s a bus that does.

Chicago’s Cave don’t make any excuses; they are consummate professionals. Play a free living room show on Thanksgiving in Oakland? Rock the house. Slay a packed Hemlock Tavern on a Friday night in San Francisco? No doubt about it. Does Rotten Milk wear sparkly jeans? Yes, and they are fabulous.

I was fortunate enough to be at both shows, flanking my main man Forest. In Oakland, Forest opened as Skate Laws and in SF the versatile Juziuk spun 45’s in between sets, setting the tone for Cave’s hypnotic riffage.

In my attempts to convince a beautiful woman to accompany me to the second show, the best description I could come up with involved the words “locked-in” more than a few times. I suppose I could’ve name checked Can, but I think that’s doing Cave a slight disservice. Their influences extend beyond Motorik, into Fela territory and are not entirely terrestrial. Just watch Rotten Milk play: when dude gets into it, he closes his eyes and tilts his head back, and you can tell he’s channeling something not of this world.

It’s impossible to single out the one element that makes Cave such a great band, but it starts with the relentless rhythm section. Rex & Dan live in the pocket, allowing Cooper & RM to lay out while never losing the groove. James Brown would be proud, and I can’t think of a higher compliment.

Their latest is Neverendless, out now on Drag City. Highly recommended – pick it up when they roll through your town or at any fine record selling establishment. For a sip of the juice, check out the boys below playing most of the LP while riding round shining.

I feel like I died and went to babe heaven. Seriously yall I’m so gay for this place and it feels like a fuzzy pink bathrobe or playing with two six-toed kitties or hanging with yr best bud ‘n some buds.

yeah thats me hi haters

&

they call it "covelo toe"

&

cant see the forest for all the trees hahahaha get it

Oakland, I’m going to make you one hell of a mix tape once I stop being so bummy and get errythang together. To you, my babies, I can promise a whole grip of 45 heat once I get the set up set sup.

Two dudes, infinitely cool. One, a Mr. Ryan Daniels interviewed Co La (Matt Papich) for ‘Sup Magazine.

The other burrito bandito, Borna Sammak, made a website for Wise Blood that includes an mp3 of a new demo, “Spliff.” Uh, check, check and check plus.

DOWNLOAD: Wise Blood – Spliff

see you all tuesday night at arabica lounge (cap hill) , 8pm for more of this megallovin’.

NEW MIX:

download: tired of bein’ nobody (mediafire)

It’s a little sloppy in parts, but sheeeiitt there are some burners on here, so dig in and be there on tuesday for more broken hearts and hot horn charts.

new mix is currently being made, should be up by Thursday evening. Until then, here’s the last one we made:

DOWNLOAD LINK

Terry Riley is just a box chock full of surprises! I knew him as the “father of minimalism” and the man responsible for the textural Rainbow in Curved Air, and the hypnotic In C, both of which occasionally find themselves on the turntable when the mood strikes. “You’re No Good,” on the other hand, is no passive listen. Riley uses side by side reel to reel’s to effectively remix Harvey Averne’s “You’re No Good,” resulting in an an ahead of it’s time edit from 1967 that didn’t see official release until 2000. Also, dude is kicking it at PIZZA HUT with none other than BIG BOI. We live in marvelous times my friends!

download: Terry Riley – “You’re No Good”

More proof the world is a strange and magical place:

“As part of an effort to help protect Kenya’s endangered species, Usain Bolt formally adopted a three-month old cheetah cub today in Nairobi. (What? You thought the world record holder in both the 100 and 200 meters would own a tortoise?)

Bolt bestowed one of his own nicknames upon the cub, naming him “Lightning Bolt”. The three-time Olympic gold medalist paid $13,700 to adopt Lightning Bolt and will contribute $3,000 per year so it can live at an animal orphanage in the Kenyan capital.

Initially (and understandably), Bolt was reluctant to meet a fully grown cheetah, but he seemed comfortable holding his new cub. At one point he even fed Lightning Bolt milk from a bottle.”

Ok so… tumblr is my new bicycle. I’m ridin’ it. I’ll continue to put things up here, but add me to your google reader, follow me, bookmark it, whatevs: areuthatsomebody.tumblr.com

Here’s a lil sampler of the some 50+ posts that have gone up in the last three days:

DOWNLOAD: http://numerogroup.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/same-kind-of-thing-going-on.mp3

“However, the most concentrated and popular form of marijuana is so-called “plastilin” (plasticine), and the way it is harvested and produced has not changed for centuries.

It begins with a freshly showered person riding naked for hours on a clean, washed horse inside a two-meter-high “forest” of marijuana.

Afterwards, the human body and that of the horse are covered with a thick layer of resin mixed with sweat.

This produces a substance that is usually dark brown in color, which is then thoroughly scraped off the human and horse’s bodies.

The mixture is subsequently pressed, molded into bars, and dried.”

and more, and more, and more: areuthatsomebody.tumblr.com

This last week was the tenth anniversary of Aaliyah’s tragic death, (there’s a reason there’s no dates on any of these posts) and I wanted to put something up about how much her music has meant to me. I usually don’t do stuff like this, but I have to make an exception for this incredible woman. Calling her “one in a million” would be an understatement – there won’t ever be another.

Everyone has their favorite Aaliyah song, it’s the kind of thing you can’t possibly be wrong about. For me, it’s “Are You That Somebody?” When that song came out I was in the midst of a classic rock obsession, and couldn’t have been more oblivious to hip-hop and r&b. Still, whenever that video came on MTV I was transfixed. Much to my surprise, so were my decidedly rockist friends, and it went into heavy rotation in Mom’s minivan.

It’s impossible for me to comprehend (or understate) the extent that Aaliyah opened my ears up – not just to r&b, but to an entire galaxy of music. This is something everyone says when discussing Aaliyah, but it bears repeating: It’s a testament to her genius that these songs still sound so fresh. She might be gone, but the legacy she left behind is as vital as ever. Just try playing “Try Again” or “We Need A Resolution” at a party and see everyone’s face light up for proof that she’ll never really die. But don’t take it from me, listen to DMX:

In her memory, download these excellent mixes and click over to The Fader for some remembrances by some of her closest friends and collaborators.

The lack of life on this site isn’t due to a lack of living – quite the opposite. I’ve spent the last couple weeks traversing beautiful Michigan, digging 45’s, doing bluff runs and researching the differences between llamas and alpacas. Accordingly, expect pictures of lakes, camelids and copious 45 rips. Until I get that together, let these bangin’ BAY YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYREA mixtapes be your hold music.

I’ve previously mentioned my affinity for these Oakland rappers, and it seems like everything they put out is better than the last – which is quite a feat, considering they’ve already put out seven tapes this year. For dudes with laid back flows, they hustle harder than most.

I can’t get enough of this dude either, and it certainly doesn’t hurt he’s got guest spots from Lil B and DB Tha General on this all killer, no filler EP. This is windows down, ridin round shining, slap so hard your windshield crack type music.

Why yes, San Francisco does have a pretty happening hip hop scene, as well as EVERYTHING ELSE YOU COULD EVER ASK FOR. As my friend Damon put it, it’s the kind of city where you can close your eyes, reach out your hand and find whatever it is you’re looking for. Pretty soon, that will include one Mr. Forest Juziuk.

No Bay Area rap round up would be complete without The Based God. This fresh-faced remake of an older gem doesn’t exactly go BARANGDANGDANG, instead its more PEACEFUL WOW on some Lake Michigan deep shit. May all your summer days be the same. /Swag.

I think it was Christmas of ‘07 when I went to L.A. with my man Joey Dosik, and he got a call asking if he wanted to drop by a session for Shafiq Husayn. Joey didn’t have his horn, so we went and borrowed a beautiful ’30s c-melody alto from Steve Isoardi and drove over to Shafiq’s house. I sat there for a couple hours while Joey played Fela Kuti-esque lines over extremely rough rhythm tracks, just running lines and improvising. Those tracks were the very beginnings of what would become Shafiq in A-Free-ka, though the title was already in place. Something like a year and a half later the record came out, and we were both shocked to find Joey credited on just about every single track, his horn samples the basis of a few beats. I don’t think he’s on the above cut, but no matter.

I never got the enmity towards Los Angeles that a lot of people have. I wonder if they’ve ever been there, or if they went anywhere other than Hollywood, or Venice. Sure it’s basically another planet down there, and that starts with the weather. It is stupid. I mean, it’s pure bliss ala this:

The weather is rarely less than perfect. And there is a superficial side to the city, but I could point you towards just as many well-adjusted, creative, kind people as I could seemy Show Biz types. Also, great Korean food, and fantastic pho. Really, everything you could ask for + lots of traffic & The Lakers.

*****hat tip to Gaby Baker for sending me the link to this video, which I’d never seen. Turns out:

1:10 PM Gabriel: get it on that sanctuary
1:14 PM oh shit
one more thing man
1:15 PM It is very possible that the girl at the 1:34 mark
is this girl Jasmine that I went to middle school with
She and I were love interests in the musical Fiorello
1:18 PM me: whhhaaaat
Gabriel: yep
me: haha small world
Gabriel: I’m kind of stunned just saying that shit outloud

Continuing my recent pledge to not actually have ideas, I’ve written an article short on substance and long in content: A list of XX/XY soul and r&b duets, chosen somewhat randomly, presented in no order and given little context. But hey, its summer, the music is nice, the sun is out, I’m going camping and Tina Turner freaking shreds.