Haimad & other: June 2008

Monday, 23 June 2008

Felix da Housecat

Artist: Felix da Housecat

   Genre(s):
Electronic
   Dance
   Breakbeat
   House
   Rock

Discography:

Virgo Blakto And The Movie Disco

Year: 2007
Tracks: 16

Devin Dazzle and The Neon Fever

Year: 2004
Tracks: 15

A Bugged Out Mix CD1

Year: 2004
Tracks: 14

A Bugged Out Mix CD2

Year: 2003
Tracks: 10

Madame Hollywood

Year: 2002
Tracks: 7

Kittenz And Thee Glitz

Year: 2001
Tracks: 17

Bugged Out Compilation

Year:
Tracks: 18

Second-wave Chicago house impresario Felix Da Housecat entered the elite via his recordings (as himself, Thee Maddkatt Courtship, Aphrohead, Sharkimaxx) as well as his ownership of Radikal Fear Records, one of the premiere Chicago labels of the nineties. An introduction to Chicago caption DJ Pierre during the mid-'80s gave the 15-year-old Felix Stallings, Jr. the kickstart he treasured, and with some help from Pierre, he produced his low gear exclusive "Phantasy Girl" in 1987.

His parents discouraged his growing society life-style, however, and after high graduation Stallings left the scene completely to take care Alabama State College. Over the grade of a few geezerhood, he confused all stake in house music, though his lady friend got him back up into it. After vocation DJ Pierre (world Health Organization had touched to New York's Strictly Rhythm label), Felix began admixture and producing over again. By 1992, he had a hit with the exclusive "Thee Dawn" on Guerilla Records. His popularity soared in Europe, and the following year's "By Dawn's Early Light" and "Thee Industry Made Me Do It" cemented his reputation.

Non long later on Stallings formed Radikal Fear Records, the label became one of the pinnacle house imprints in the world, thanks to releases from Mike Dunn, DJ Sneak, and Armando as well as Felix himself. During 1995, he released his debut uncut Alone in the Dark (as Thee Maddkatt Courtship) on Deep Distraxion. Hot on its heels came the label aggregation Radikal Fear: The Chicago All Stars and a Housecat DJ album titled Clashbackk Compilation Mix. Another production LP, City Present Day? Thee Album, followed in 1998. One class later, Stallings appeared extra busy; in add-on to his first-class honours degree album as Aphrohead, he too released some other Maddkatt Courtship LP, the highly praised I Know Elektrikboy. 2001 sawing machine the tone ending of Kittenz and Thee Glitz, a highly praised LP that helped him advance mainstream vulnerability through articles in glossy magazines across the globe -- non to mention remix work for the likes of Madonna and Kylie Minogue. The proper review, Devin Dazzle and the Neon Fever, didn't get in until comfortably all over 2 days afterward, just Stallings set together a pair of mix albums (2002's Excursions and 2003's A Bugged Out Mix) during the intervening years.

Monday, 16 June 2008

Award-Winning Singer-Songwriter Christine Evans Is Now Shooting Her Debut Film Role, the Female Lead In An Independent Feature, in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, June 16 -- Award-winning Canadian
singer-songwriter Christine Evans is currently shooting an independent
feature film under the working title of Black And Blue in Los Angeles,
California. Evans has the starring role of Amber in the production, which
marks her debut big-screen role as she crosses over to the film world to
build an acting career parallel to her life in music.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080616/LAM033)

An early 2009 release is anticipated for the film, which is produced by
Tim Swain and directed by Jill Maxcy from a script by Liz Maccie. A gritty
coming-of-age story with a strong musical thread guiding its narrative,
Black And Blue blends the darkness of Thirteen with the transcendent
hopefulness of Once.

The film centers on the story of Evans' character Amber, a teenager
from a troubled home in Tucson -- her mother is struggling with drugs and
suicide attempts. Amber is sent to Los Angeles to live with her uncle, but
finds that atmosphere equally destructive. With nowhere else to turn, she
goes out on the streets of downtown L.A., and forges a bond with four other
homeless kids living in an abandoned warehouse.

Amber and her friends play music together and busk for change on a city
promenade. She discovers an old-school record store near the promenade run
by Billy, a veteran blues guitarist now in his sixties. As a result of his
own personal turmoil, Billy has been hiding out for decades, but a
connection with Amber draws him out. He helps her with her music, becomes a
mentor, and steers her and her friends towards a better future in a turn of
events that proves redemptive for all.

As a music artist, Christine Evans first emerged during her early teen
years from the thriving Vancouver Island scene that's also produced Nelly
Furtado and Diana Krall. Evans won Album of the Year for her second CD Push
at Vancouver's 2007 Island Music Awards and Best Video at the Gospel Music
Association of Canada's 2007 Covenant Awards for the edgy video for "Push."
A rising star in contemporary Christian music, Evans co-produced the album
with veteran producer Tom Hall, and scored a Canadian #1 Christian radio
hit with "Break Me."

Christine Evans is represented in the U.S. by Showdown Management,
whose clients include the breakout band Paramore. Her latest recording, the
alt-rock skewed EP Standing On The Edge, was just released in Canada and
was produced by multi-Dove Award winner Matt Bronleewe (Natalie Imbruglia,
Jars of Clay, Michael W. Smith).

Christine Evans still makes her home near Victoria, B.C.

For more information, log on to http://www.christine-evans.com

See Also

Thursday, 12 June 2008

Dylan Backs Obama

Bob Dylan has offered his support to U.S. presidential wannabe Barack Obama in an interview with a London newspaper. The folk rock icon tells The Times he has become disillusioned about the state of America and feels Obama offers the country hope. Dylan states, "Right now America is in a state of upheaval. Poverty is demoralising. You can't expect people to have the virtue of purity when they are poor. "But we've got this guy out there now who is redefining the nature of politics from the ground up. Barack Obama. He's redefining what a politician is, so we'll have to see how things play out. "Am I hopeful? Yes, I'm hopeful that things might change. Some things are going to have to." Dylan isn't the only musical heavyweight supporting the Democrat - Bruce Springsteen, will.i.am and Stevie Wonder have also offered the Senator their support.

See Also

No 330: Rosie and the Goldbug

Hometown: Cornwall.

The lineup: Rosie Vanier (vocals, keyboards), Lee Matthews aka Pixie (bass), Sarah Morgan aka Plums (drums).

The background: Rosie and the Goldbug are a techno-ish, keyboard-enhanced indie-rock trio who are known to do a cover version of Duran Duran's Planet Earth live, but there the comparisons with yesterday's New Band of the Day, Ladyhawke, end. They sound more English, for starters - "Kate Bush on crack with Goldfrapp on synths" is how they've been described - and their mix of electronics and rock is more rough and ragged than Ladyhawke's shiny cyber-disco. Plus, Rosie Vanier sings less like a faultless robo-chick than a proper real live girl, the cracks and sobs in her voice betraying her Cornish roots and kooky personality.

But then, you'd probably sound kooky if you had a gregarious mum and part-Native American space-cadet dad who both used to cycle round Europe entertaining passers-by with folk ballads. You might have come out a bit eccentric if you were brought up on Bodmin Moor on a plot of land with no electricity, no heat, no TV, just a piano that your weird parents forced you to play and your only entertainment growing up was fiddling with the shiny red metallic paper at primary school. So much for Vanier's background. These days, having studied "pretentious jazz modes" at Roehampton University, she's in a band with Pixie, a son of hippie-surfer parents who spent his childhood in a beachside caravan, and Plums, a lesbian drummer who had a stint in a Japanese drumming ensemble and tends to flail about onstage like a transsexual Keith Moon.

Actually, despite all these spicy ingredients, Rosie and the Goldbug - the "Goldbug" bit of their name is courtesy of an Edgar Allan Poe story - aren't as tasty as they sound. They're certainly not as weird, or unhinged, as you'd expect. You've Changed suggests an over-fondness for La Bush's Hounds of Love. Heartbreak is budget electro-pop with pounding piano and a rickety beat, "about Plums when she came out about being a lezzer", according to Vanier. War of the Roses (Because You Said So) is a (Transvision) vamp through the Blondie catalogue. And Lover, the lead-off track on their debut single - although produced by Jim Eliot, one half of Kish Mauve, the duo behind Kylie's 2 Hearts comeback - isn't quite as pristine and perfect as you wish it was. The songs leave you feeling more deflated than elated.

The buzz: "Vanier's voice moves effortlessly from seductive whispers to banshee wails, leaving you wondering if you have stumbled into a stage show of Cats on acid."

The truth: RATG may share an acronym with Rage Against the Machine, but you won't get insurrectionary thrills here.

Most likely to: Make Wendy James wonder where she went wrong.

Least likely to: Make you feel mysterious and macabre.

What to buy: The War of the Roses EP is released by Lover on July 14.

File next to: Kate Bush, Ladyhawke, the Heartthrobs, Blondie.

Links: www.rosieandthegoldbug.com, www.myspace.com/rosieandthegoldbug

Tomorrow's new band: Das Pop.

See Also

Nbc - Report Oreilly Was Unleashed Against Nbc Ge

Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes phoned NBC chief Jeff Zucker last summer and threatened
to "unleash" Bill O'Reilly against NBC and its parent, General Electric, unless Zucker
reigned in MSNBC host Keith Olberman, who was regularly attacking O'Reilly (as "the
worst person in the world") and Ailes himself, the Washington Post reported
today (Monday). The complaints were later echoed in phone calls to Zucker from Rupert
Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, which owns Fox News, the Post said. After
the appeals failed, O'Reilly began an assault on GE chief Jeffrey Immelt, accusing him
and his company of supporting the Iranian government. "If my child were killed in
Iraq, I would blame the likes of Jeffrey Immelt," O'Reilly said during one broadcast.
GE spokesman Gary Sheffer insisted that "nothing we supply ... to Iran is in any
way endangering U.S. troops." He said that News Corp execs "tell us if the attacks
on O'Reilly end, the attacks on GE will end."

19/05/2008

See Also

Clint Eastwood Too Old For Dirty Harry

Clint Eastwood has admitted that he's too old to revive his 'Dirty Harry' character, Harry Callanhan, saying that although "it was great fun at that time", there is little chance of him reprising his role. The 77-year-old actor, who turns 78 at the end of this month, ruled out another movie in the 70saction franchise while at a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival. "'Dirty Harry' would not be on the police department at my age, so we'll move on from that," Eastwood said. "Whatever reaction it had, it was great fun at that time. It was a fantasy role. You point a .44 Magnum at someone and say, 'Do you feel lucky?'"Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.

Steve Reich

Artist: Steve Reich

   Genre(s):
Classical
   Classical

Discography:

Tehillim

Year: 1982
Tracks: 2

Tehillim - Three Movements

Year:
Tracks: 7

Terrence Howard - Howard Threatened To Kill Daughters Sweetheart

Actor TERRENCE HOWARD has proved his credentials as the ultimate over-protective father - he threatened to kill his daughter AUBREY's teenage boyfriend.

The Iron Man star didn't appreciate his 14-year-old daughter dating a classmate he disapproves of, and "intervened" by forcing her to ditch the unfavourable suitor.

He says, "She's supposedly in love with some guy. I made her break up with him and I've threatened to kill him. I was like, you picked a green fruit from the tree that's far from ripe."

And Howard ensures he keeps a tight-leash on his beloved kids - warning Aubrey she will be cut out of any future inheritance if she is not "obedient".

He tells his daughter, "I've set a lot of things aside for you, but those things are only yours as long as you're obedient to me."

However, the actor has put a crafty plan into action to make sure the teenager doesn't fall back into her unsuitable relationship.

He adds, "She's OK now. Though, I'm sure he's still kind of her boyfriend. This summer I'll take her off to another country where her phone won't work, and he'll start dating someone else."

Howard has three children with his ex-wife Lori MCCommas; Aubrey, 14, Hunter, 12, and Heavenly, 10.

See Also

The Raconteurs map fall shows

With their summer outing now underway, alt-rockers The Raconteurs [ tickets ] are laying the groundwork for a fall roadtrip.New to the group's itinerary is a two-week stretch that launches with a mid-September, two-night stand in Portland, OR, and canvases the West Coast before heading to the South. The new leg of shows follows the group's European summer run.The band launched its current North American jaunt last week, and has remaining stops in eight US cities through the middle of this month. Details for all of the group's North American shows are included below, and international dates are available at the quartet's MySpace page. The Raconteurs are touring in support of their sophomore album, "Consolers of the Lonely," which surfaced in late March. The set features the cuts "Salute Your Solution," "The Switch and the Spur," "Top Yourself" and "Many Shades of Black," all four of which are streaming at the group's aforementioned MySpace page.The band did no advance promotion for "Consolers of the Lonely," which was recorded in early March and rushed into production in both vinyl and CD form. The group announced the existence of the 14-track set only days before its release.The set, which follows the band's 2006 debut, "Broken Boy Soldiers," entered The Billboard 200 album chart at No. 7, selling about 42,000 copies its first week.