Before I Die (Savannah)

If you're not familiar with Candy Chang, then definitely check out some of her stuff, which includes some incredible street art projects. The homies at SeeSAW in Savannah have installed two of Chang's "Before I Die" walls in Savannah to coincide with the 4th Annual Savannah Urban Arts Festival. On the side of abandoned homes, it features "Before I die _______" and allows passerby to fill in the rest. Here's a pic of one of the houses, located at the corner of 31st & Waters. 

Jubee and the Morning After

These guys came through the Savannah Urban Arts Festival and killed it last Saturday. Macon, GA - and Georgia in general - has some artists doing interesting things with hip hop and rock that aren't rap rock - Floco Torres, Baby Baby, KidSyc@Brandywine, Jubee and the Morning After - keep an eye on 'em.

Yancy

Yancy came down and did a set yesterday during the Savannah Urban Arts Festival and it was dope. He's got of Jay-Z type style but without the pomposity or the dope game. Let this joint ride past the intro and get blessed with a real smooth piano line and some suave mic control.

Baby Baby

These guys are from ATL/Carrolton/Macon and are posted up in Savannah all weekend. Last night they played LiveWire with KidSyc@Brandywine and Aux Arc. Tonight they snuck onto a tight bill at Hang Fire with Cusses and The Shaniqua Brown, and tomorrow, they will play at the Bean for the opening of the Savannah Urban Arts Festival. Find them at one of those events.
They are hard to pin down stylistically. Someone from Cusses described them as Fishbone with out the horns, which is solid. It makes me want to jump around a lot. Not a lot of music does that any more.  I'm gonna be jamming this all summer like a teeny bopper.

SUAF 2011

The Savannah Urban Arts Festival kicks off April 17, and it's gonna be a dope year. Swing by Indigo Sky on 4/17 from 4-6pm for the opening reception of Fresh Produce, featuring a bunch of amazing Georgia artists curated by Sean Fahie and I, along with a live beat set from last year's beat battle champ Unda. There's film screenings, loads of music, a graf workshop, artist development workshops, dance, poetry and more...Peep the full schedule on the website.

Fresh Produce

I'm co-curating an art show during the Savannah Urban Arts Festival with Sean Fahie of Nine and Three Quarters. It'll feature a dozen artists from Atlanta, Savannah and Augusta - all of whom are ill with the art skills. The show opens April 17 with a reception from 4-6pm at Indigo Sky Gallery.

Floco's Modern Life

Here's a quick taste of what's to come from Macon, GA-based rapper Floco Torres. He's in the studio right now working on the group's full-length debut Floco's Modern Life. He came down for the Savannah Urban Arts Festival last year and rocked the stage at the Civil Rights Museum.

Union of Sacred Monsters

Download two new tracks from the Union of Sacred Monsters, a collaborative effort from members of the Dope Sandwich crew. "Rat" is a crazy house party rocking, breakdancers' anthem. "Put it all together" is a laidback tune offering up a free lesson on how to make true school hip hop.

They will be unveiling the LP during the Savannah Urban Arts Festival [see the next post].

Savannah Urban Arts Festival

Get SAUFy! For a full schedule of events, check out www.savannahurbanartsfestival.com

Savannah Urban Arts Festival

The Savannah Urban Arts Festival kicks off next Sunday (4/18) and continues with a full week of events, including a big day Saturday (4/24) with tons of live music, food and a visit from Art Beats and Lyrics. Check out the full schedule on the website.

Alex B "You and I Both Know"

It's been a busy week, but this is just what I was looking for to take the edge off and prepare for what should be a pretty interesting weekend.

Dare Dukes, Little Tybee and Book of Colors are playing at the Co-Lab tonight, followed by Sunglasses "farewell Savannah" performance at Hang Fire later. They are about to head to Maryland to record an LP and then tour.

[By the way, can I mention that I hope those fellas from Sunglasses return to Savannah as heroes rather than settling down in another city, it kills me to watch all of our great talents sapped by the attraction of larger markets like NYC, ATL, LA, ATX.]

What I started out to mention was that this track Alex B track "You and I Both Know" is the bees-goshdarn-knees and you should check it out if you're into jacked up soul finely chopped with a dash of glitch and some serious space funk.

Visit his website for more info.

Oh yeah, the other reason this weekend will be awesome - the debut of the Savannah Record Club's Vinyl Appreciation over at  Indigo Arts on Sunday at 5pm. Come by and check it out. Lost gems and forgotten prodigies.

Also, in a side note to the aforementioned Dare Dukes, you should check out the new project featuring the Blackstock Collective (Dare's band) bass player Charles, it's called Brandywine. Live band doing laidback hip hop instrumentals. Grab a copy of their new EP from their blog. Good stuff.

They will be making an appearance at the Savannah Urban Arts Festival - the full line up of which is probably being released in the next couple of days, and which I will be sure to post, because it will be really awesome. Drop by the website for some of the stuff already listed, including a couple artists and the week's lineup.

Vinyl Appreciation - 3/28, Indigo Arts Center

I'm rounding up a bunch of Savannah's coolest DJs to host an early evening session where we play all the awesome records that we never get to play at bars or parties because of the audience demands. Bring your sweater because it'll be cool. Deep cuts. Excellent selectors spanning genres and styles. Come hang out. Take it easy on a Sunday evening and check out some music you might not know.

It all goes March 28, 5pm at the Indigo Arts Center (703D Louisville Rd, Savannah GA). $3 at the door, with all proceeds benefitting the space (which is a non-profit dedicated to keeping a low-cost performance space open) and the Savannah Urban Arts Festival, which runs April 18-25, and will be chainless. SUAF still has a few days left for artist submissions, so if you're in the southeast and you make music, art, film/video or whatever, go to the website and fill out an application.

Facebook Event Page. 

SUAF Commercial

Check out this dope SUAF commercial. Big up to Paragon Design for putting this together.


SUAF TV spot from Andrew on Vimeo.

SUAF Announces Lineup for Benefit Concert May 9th

The Savannah Urban Arts Festival has announced the lineup for it's big benefit concert that will be the culmination of 6 days of events. 8PM, May 9th @ the Morris Center, SUAF will present two Savannah natives who have gone out and done big things with music - Grammy winner Anthony David, and electro-soul diva Brittany Bosco (they both went to the same high school too, although at different times).

The fact that the show consists of two locals who had to leave the city to make career moves just demonstrates how much the city itself needs to improve its creative infrastructure. Second-tier cities across the country suffer from a massive talent-drain where every artist with a chance to do big things has to move to ATL, NYC, LA or wherever else talented folks go, and it means that their hometowns suffer by an ongoing inability to support their own artists.

This will be a great event, and probably one of the best shows in Savannah all year. For more info, check out www.savannahurbanartsfestival.com - and by the way, big up to Paragon Design for all their help with the website.