I would’ve like to have knocked this out in a more timely fashion but alas, here I am left with my nearly passe commentary on this Estelle joint. I first heard Big Spanish rock this track on Hot97 a few months ago and it’s only now that I actually first saw the video which to be honest, I’m a disappointed in. Loving the song, no qualms there whatsoever. And to really cover the bases, the video is not bad by any means. It’s just that there feels to me like a serious lack of reached potential in which this song would inspire. First off, what is Kanye doing with that creepy talking into Estelle’s ear Ying Yang Twins shit? It doesn’t fit. I just picture planes, great skyline views, travel, fresh dancing and good flash animation. Here I’m left with Kanye trying to be a pimp with his fur and a corny array of “American boys” Estelle sitting on a couch with paint on the wall. Although I do like the shadow taking a life of its own effect as an upside. And overall, this song is one of my favs for 08.

What makes me really excited about this one is that the Black Lips are a pretty major group, and they’re going to be playing 7 blocks away from my apartment.  I’m not really used to this sort of thing happening out here in Bushwick.  Good job Ridgewood Temple.

Thursday June 5th @ THE RIDGEWOOD TEMPLE

BLACK LIPS

THE RIDGEWOOD TEMPLE
1054 Bushwick Ave @ Gates Ave | Bushwick, Brooklyn 
J,Z-Gates Ave, L,M-Myrtle/Wyckoff | 8pm | all ages | $10

The good peoples Time Machine from LA have traversed the country and landed in NY for the first in a set of shows in the city that never sleeps. They’ll be performing at Annex tonight in LES on Orchard St. but you gotta RSVP!  Click on the flyer to hit the Going.com page and RSVP with your info there.

Gilles Peterson, for those of you who are familiar with the British music maven, has been running Brownswood Recordings for just a few years now. We first were hipped to the upstart from the cross-pond vapors we caught from flagship artist, Ben Westbeech:

So the video has its corny moments, but don’t you have a suddenly brighter view of the world as Westbeech’s boyish and uplifting vocals hit you?  And that drum programming??  C’mon!  He may be a limey, but dude’s clearly melding some classical abilities with some self taught rawness… yet we digress.  This post is about Jose James.  The whole point is, when Giles Peterson signs someone, we listen and so should you.

James just dropped his debut release, The Dreamer, breathing some new life into Jazz.  Reading around, a lot of people are pairing his voice with Gil Scott Heron.  Not gonna argue with that, and certainly not gonna complain either.  Shit, we should find a few more Gil Scotts out there!

So the best and most relevant part of JJ to our faithful BSC readers you ask?  He’s from non other than BK!!  It’s doubtful he’s actually a Bushwick representative since he references riding the A Train as a youngin’, but that’s ok.  We’ll still give props where props are due.

OH!! And how could we almost forget!  JJ will be playing on the 29th at Nublu on Ave C in Manhattan.  Check Giant Step for ticketing and event info

 Other Media

Though this is going down in Williamsburgh, we gotta show love to Bushwick based RE:UP Magazine along with Fool’s Gold who … well, they’re just really cool.