In the old days of the music industry, label staff loaded up their station wagons with vinyl albums and promotional goodies, and set off on Odyssey -like road trips across America, stopping at every mom'n'pop retail shop along the way. The goal was to establish direct, personal relationships with record stores, and to forge a connection between retail, artist, and label which has become increasingly rare these days.
So you've got to give it up to Seattle-based indie reissue specialists Light in the Attic, who this week launched an ambitious tour down the Pacific Northwest coast, stopping at music retailers along the way, promoting solidarity - and saving shipping costs. LITA's journey began May 18th in the home of Nirvana and Sir Mix-a-Lot; they'll hit the Bay area tomorrow, with stops at the Santa Rosa's aptly-named The Last Record Store and Cotati's Backdoor May 21; On May 22, they'll be at El Cerrito's Down Home Music and Mod Lang and San Francisco's Aquarius; On May 23, they hit Rasputins and the Groove Merchant in SF before jetting down to Santa Cruz. From there, they'll continue southward to San Diego, before swinging back to Sacramento and, eventually, back home to Seattle. Follow their Twitter feed here, or, better yet, go out and greet 'em at your local vinyl emporium.
Levende Lounge's weekly emerging talent showcase "We All We Got" heats up tonight with an appearance by Chela Simone, one of the Bay Area's rawest female emcees.
Imagine the lyrical finesse of MC Lyte with the revolutionary intellectualism of Sister Souljah--but coming from the Bay--and you might have an inkling of how dope Simone really is. Her fire is well-evident on "Shut 'Em Down" (featuring frequent collaborator Azeem), a song inspired by the Oscar Grant incident, on which she spits blazing lines like "I'm a ask you a melanin question/ how old were you when you learned your first lesson?"
Simone's MySpace page reveals a plethora of similarly-blazing tracks, suggesting she's stockpiling a lyrical armada to serve as a soundtrack for tomorrow's insurrection. Simone is no stranger to the stage--she was trained as a classical/opera vocalist and has been a fixture in the Bay's independent hip-hop scene for many years, as well as a featured vocalist in future-jazz act Colossus. Over the years, she's performed with the likes of KRS1, Pharaoh Monch, Talib Kweli, Common, Del, Medusa, Common, Lyrics Born, Saafir & The Whoriddas (Hobo Junction), Mystic Journeymen, Jungle Bros, De La Soul, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Strange Fruit Project, and the Living Legends. As if that wasn't enough, in 2008, she toured Europe alongside femcee legends Roxanne Shante and Bahamedia.
If you like strong, independent women (and aren't threatened by their smarts), you owe it to yourself to check Simone out, before she blows up. Also appearing on tonight's bill: Ramrock.
