CLAIRE HUX

All I have to say is…  so well done. Some of you “younger” folks may have never played Mike Tyson’s Punchout, so you won’t get the whole joke. But it’s still funny.

-DLake

This is a re-post from Joy Ike’s extremely informative and needed blog “Grassrootsy”. Joy Ike is an amazingly talented Pittsburgh, PA based singer/songwriter that I’ve had the pleasure of booking (one of they many hats I wear) at Joe Squared. She gave an email interview, and I got to blabbering as I usually do and realize it was pretty damn informative. Hope you enjoy! [Click Here for the original]

An Interview with Joe Squared – Things Every Venue Wishes You Knew

Joe Squared – Voted Baltimore’s Best Pizza

Todays interview is with Daren, booker of Baltimore’s Joe Squared and member of Disco/Pop/Hip-Hop Group, Claire Hux. Daren shares an overwhelming amount of knowledge with readers about how venues run and how to book and successfully promote your show. The below information will certainly make you re-think the way you or your band operates. It’s a long, but excellent post. Take the time to read it. Your comments are welcomed.

“Indie artists really need to learn the art of promoting themselves. It’s part of being indie.  It’s like paying your taxes, you don’t want to do it, but it’s the price you pay for a civilized society.”   ~Daren of Joe Squared

1. Tell us a little bit about Joe Squared. Joe2 is an interesting venue. It’s a high-quality pizza/salad/pasta-type restaurant and bar during the day and then becomes a music venue, bar, and lounge at night. Joe Edwardsen (founder, owner) is an amazingly ambitious and intelligent guy that decided Baltimore needed a “different kind” of pizza place (back in Nov 2005, when he opened).  They just had Dj’s at first and I was lucky enough to be one of his first customers. The band I was in practiced next door and we would go in there and get wings or chicken fingers. They only had DJ’s on Friday and Saturday. Haha. I actually remember asking him if they had any openings and he politely denied me. Fast forward to about a year later. I ended up working there as a delivery driver part-time to fund my music dream.  Since I was a dj/engineer/producer, I knew how all the gear worked and in my spare “down” time I would organize the DJ booth. I finally got a regular dj gig there. Haha!  I became attached and would yell at all the DJ’s that didn’t put everything back the right way.  Joe finally got his live music license (summer 2007), and thats when we started booking bands.  We started out with just a few bands a week with regular DJ slots.  Now we book up to 6 days a week with only one DJ night (“Dig” on Tuesdays). We’ve revamped and upgraded everything and have figured out a system hat works. Only took us 3 years. Ha! Our venue is odd because we are a restaurant first and then a venue, so we know it would be awkward to charge a cover for people who are sitting…and we have a regular “bar crowd” that we would hate to turn down. So the 15% of the bar rule (artist get %15 of sales) came about; which from my experience is a bit higher than most venues. But we really love our artists. We’ve found that blues, garage, rockabilly, bluegrass, jazz, acoustic, and rock acts have really enjoyed playing at our establishment and we get alot of those genre’s asking to play.

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[Mad props to my boys L-Train and Jeremey G. for showing me this site]

http://www.jamphat.com/rap/

You need to have a strong grasp of mid 90’s hip hop to get a few of these… but it’s very rewarding. Some of my favourites (click the pictures and the youtube song accompanies the graph/chart. pretty ill.)

-DLake

This is what Black People should be in the mainstream media for.

-DLake

All You Haters (Suck My Balls) from nixbros on Vimeo.

Resposted from http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/29/ginkgo.biloba.brain/index.html

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Ginkgo biloba is among the most popular dietary supplements for brain health. In 2007, Americans spent $107 million on it.

(Health.com) — Ginkgo biloba has failed — again — to live up to its reputation for boosting memory and brain function. Just over a year after a study showed that the herb doesn’t prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, a new study from the same team of researchers has found no evidence that ginkgo reduces the normal cognitive decline that comes with aging.

Should you take ginkgo to slow down the effects of age on the brain? “The answer appears to be ‘no,’” says the lead author of the study, Steven T. DeKosky, M.D., the vice president and dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia.

In the new study, the largest of its kind to date, DeKosky and his colleagues followed more than 3,000 people between the ages of 72 and 96 for an average of six years. Half of the participants took two 120-milligram capsules of ginkgo a day during the study period, and the other half took a placebo.

The people who took ginkgo showed no differences in attention, memory, and other cognitive measures compared to those who took the placebo, according to the study, which was published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Claire Hux – Light Skinnededed  (Click below to download for free!)

To all of our NYC fans, tonight & tomm (Wed Dec 16th & Thurs 17th) Claire Hux is performing a live DJ Set (Morsy & DLake) @  Sutra and Happy Ending (Lower East Side).  Both are free parties and should be crazy!

To all of our Baltimore & Philly fans, we are playing a slew of Live Shows and DJ Gigs @ The Ottobar, Sonar & The Barbary (Philly).  Come out and support!

Damn… really really well done. I love the Drake Cameo

-DLake

Illiteracy In Louisiana? … (Don’t even try to top this) !  PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE SPELLING OF THE NAME!!!

How would you pronounce this child’s name?

She spells her name….. “Le-a”
So… how would YOU pronounce her name?

This child attends a school in Livingston Parish, LA..   Her mother is irrate because eve ryone is getting her name wrong.   She says it’s pronounced…………….. “Ledasha”.
When the Mother was asked how in the world did she figured it should be pronounced that way…….      she said….
…”cause the dash don’t be silent!”
So, if you see a name come across your desk like this… please remember to pronounce the dash.
And… if anyone axe you why, tell them it’s ’cause the dash don’t be silent!
Someone… pleeeeze, pleeeze tell me dis don’t be true! Surely, someone be’s jokin’ with us?!?!

-DLake

[Repost from HERE ]

I haven’t played this yet… i’m an experienced dj and I have some decent turntable skills… so i’d love to try this thing out, but dj’ing isn’t like playing in a band.

This was forwarded to me by one of our production partners “Godfather Sage“. Very well done and interesting.

[Repost taken from Vigilant Citizen. Original blog post HERE]

From unexpected drama to shocking performances, MTV’s 2009 Video Music Awards managed once again to raise eyebrows and get people talking. What most people missed, however,  were the occult meanings encoded in the VMAs. The TV event was in fact a large scale occult ceremony, complete with an initiation, a prayer and even a blood sacrifice. We’ll look at the symbolism that appeared during the show.

MTV’s Video Music Awards have often incorporated dark and strange acts, containing some occult symbolism. This year’s version, however, outdid itself. The show left most people wondering what was wrong with Kanye West or trying compute the madness of Lady Gaga’s performance. The only way to understand the full meaning behind those performances is to look into esoteric teachings. The fact is that the whole awards show took the most common rituals of occult orders and re-enacted them in a show witnessed by the entire world.

This year’s VMA’s were very different from other awards shows. They focused on a very limited number of artists (Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga), while ignoring many others who were equally successful. The “chosen” artists became characters in the VMA’s ceremony and acted out different ritual dramas. This might sound totally crazy to the average MTV viewer but those acquainted with the practices of occult orders (such as Freemasonry) can decode the references to sacred rituals.  There are numerous types of fraternities and rituals, from the most noble to the most infernal, and they have existed throughout History. The VMAs were decisively inspired by dark, sinister and even Satanic ceremonies.  Let’s look at those rituals.

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I get weak every time… it does NOT get old. (Especially the white people)

Our main man from Bloomington, Indiana (yes they have a dope scene out there), DJ Phenom is bringing the heavy heat. It bangs & is Claire Hux approved! Free Download below!

http://soundcloud.com/djphenom

DLake as Wanda

PLUS Wanda?  Variety is reporting that the company Screen Gems has acquired “Sheneneh and Wanda” to star in a comedy as “modern day independent women trying to make it on their own, one bank robbery at a time.”  Now, I used to LOVE Martin and the character of Sheneneh, and Wanda on “In Living Color,” another classic.  I’m not sure how well this movie will do, but there are enough fans out there that might pay to see it in theaters.

Here is the inspiration for the film, which Jamie Foxx and Martin Lawrence made for the BET awards…enjoy!

New Claire Hux Remix with one of our favourite (yes spelled the british way) MC’s Ced Hughes! Click Here to Download

-DLake