BadSeed Blog

Junior High is an incredibly talented turntablist. (peep this sample) He is young, but has a clear vision of what he will and won't do as an artist. To me, that is real hip hop - he won't do shit just to get fame or fit in: he just wants to scratch. For those of you who truly love hip hop and haven't seen him live, don't slip - you owe it to yourself to make it out to see him next time he performs with Tone. The kid is amazing.

I was spurred to think of this when reading about the new VW Golf commercial aired during the Super Bowl. It features the infamous dance number from Singing in the Rain featuring Gene Kelly, but melded with modern pop-locking moves.

Turns out, the new moves were done by a young kid by the name of Elsewhere who rocks the b-boy dance style. He actually caught a bit of Internet fame a couple years back with this video that went around a while ago. The kid's moves are plain mind-blowing.

The lesson for all of us is that if you are true to what you really love and if you are passionate about it and stick to it, the Universe will pay you to do what you love. You don't have to sell out, you don't have to conform. You just have to really know what you want to do, and not let others sway you from your goals.

Thanks again to the Seedlings who came out to Echo to see Tone and Junior High do their thang. It was a big turnout, and the energy and love was phizzzat. Pictures from the event are now posted. Check 'em out.

The show at Echo was terrific. Tone along with Junior High, Slap & myself delivered hot performances. Tone's supporters were out in full force, making this event very live, especially for a Tuesday night.

We went out to do the sound check early on Tuesday and thought it would be a quick deal. The stage was in place, and we brought our own sound system. But once we had the ta-tas, mics, mixer and speakers rigged up, we started running in to trouble. The EONs were not pumping enough bass to fill the space. Luckily, we spotted a spare house EON, which we added into the sytem. Then we converted one of the EONs into our bass cabinet. So we got it sounding right.

Then, during Tone's mic check, the tracks started making a popping sound. We trouble-shot that issue for at least an hour before we pinpointed the source of the problem: our CD player (a high-end specialty performance unit) was skipping from the sound waves. Crap. Junior High rigged up a damping system and finally the music was cool. All in all, instead of taking an hour and a half, the sound check took more like three and a half hours. In the end, though, it was worth it because Tone was able to perform with confidence that the equipment would deliver properly.

Major thank you's to all of the Seedlings who came out on a Tuesday night to support Tone and Bad Seed Music. Basically, we knew everybody there - meaning, that everyone there came to see Tone. Not bad!

Also, I will be posting pics from the show in the next couple of days.

Tone will be headlining at Echo Lounge tomorrow night. This is our first performance since the huge event with Too Short about a month ago. That event was a monster ... we dealt with shifty characters, a last-minute venue cancellation, a short window to promote the event, and the logistics of putting on a show in a venue with four areas, three DJ rooms, four live acts, multiple 'promoters', three deejays etc etc etc. We pulled it off.

There were a lot of things we could have done better. There were some things that we did wrong. But in the end, Tone's performance was the standout performance of the night: he made new fans, we established more credibility, and new opportunities came out of the show.

This time, the show will be at a much smaller venue, in a different part of the Bay Area, and Tone has been booked by the promoter. It makes a huge difference. For those of you out there who have produced, promoted, or put on events of your own, I'm sure you know what I mean. Performing takes a lot of preparation. Promoting takes a lot of work. Producing an event is a whole other ball of wax.

Trying to do all three is murder, and even though we have a strong team, doing all three of those things for the Too Short show was a massive burden.

This time, we are doing some promotion - but so is the event promoter - but we are mainly responsible for the perfomance. Even though Tone & Junior High still are putting in a lot of effort to their show prep, there is a lot less pressure on all of us at BSM with this event.

Don't miss out on this show. We look forward to seeing all of the Seedlings out in effect. We'll be out there early, eatin' some sushi and doing the soundcheck. Holla!

Yo everybody... it's gonna be cracking next Tuesday night at the Echo Lounge in the dub-C - aka walnut crizzzeeeek - Tone is headlining the lineup at this hot nightspot. Roll out, support your boy Tone and the Bad Seeds.