As many of you know, we were thrilled and honored to have DJ 2-Tone Jones, join us to launch the Festival of the New Black Imagination.  2-Tone, along with his partner, Gerald Watson, are the brains behind the Shaolin Jazz project.  One to the things they launched just prior to the Festival was this mini follow up, their tribute to the late Gil-Scott Heron.

Gerald writes:

. . .the story behind this one is that I’m a big Gil Scott fan (since my teens) and I normally don’t “feel” anything when most artists, celebs, pass but when Gil Scott passed I definitely “felt” a since of loss (perhaps it was the hours listening to his work, that D.C. energy from his music, going to college with his son, or seeing one his last shows in D.C. at Blues Alley) and I spoke to 2-Tone a day later about the idea of doing a SHAOLIN JAZZ – Gil Scott inspired track, and he was down.

What was originally supposed to be one track turned into three songs, as 2-Tone again caught that creative vibe, and so it was only right to also give the music a visual identity, so we reached out to Shamona [Stokes, the winner of the Shaolin Jazz cover art contest] to see if she’d be interested in creating a cover for the EP, which she straight-finessed…and, project complete.

Sound hot? Of course, it does! So get your download on right here.

SIERRA: Introduce me to the band
members and their roles in the band.

SIERRA: Do you have any new music
being released soon? 

HOTTUB: Yes. We’re workin’ on a full
length due in the Spring. 

SIERRA: Do you have any upcoming
shows? 

HOTTUB: Please peep our MySpace for upcoming shows. 

SIERRA: Are there videos to any of
your songs?

HOTTUB: Yes! “1-2-3-GO!” It’s on our
MySpace, too. And a shit load of YouTube clips, search: “HOTTUB Oakland Live.” 

SIERRA: What's the #1 priority for
your band right now?

HOTTUB: To infiltrate the religious
right, learn their ways and use it against them! 

SIERRA: Plans to tour any time soon?

HOTTUB: For sure! We’re headin’ out
to SXSW, then hopefully a full tour in the summer. 

SIERRA: Where can we find you on the
web?

HOTTUB: Official Blog , MySpace, Twitter, Facebook

SIERRA: How can we buy your music?

HOTTUB: Please peep us on iTunes. 

SIERRA: How can we contact HOTTUB for
booking?

HOTTUB: hottub.oakland@gmail.com, ATTN: Jason
Stinnett (Sierra Says: Jason made this interview possible….thanks Jason!)

SIERRA: Best thing about being in HOTTUB?

HOTTUB: Meeting rad people, making
the world smaller everyday!!

SIERRA: Your fantasy show or tour
line up?

HOTTUB: Opening for a Manny
Paqiau fight in the Philippines!

Photo cred: Baleout Photos, Black Box Revue, John Kurc and Myleen Hollero

*Sierra Says: Party Corps is a San Francisco based non-profit social network that throws parties to educate the public on social and environmental issues, raise money on behalf of beneficiary good causes and to have fun! 

Boldaslove caught up with Atlanta Electronic musician Ethereal.  Originally from College Park, GA., Ethereal took time to talk with me about his sound and his projects just before playing a show at Apache Cafe in Midtown Atlanta.

DOWNLOAD

We catch up with TheDollDaze to talk to her about her sound, her new EP “The Acid Report” and to get a sense of her journey as an artist in the Atlanta scene.

DOWNLOAD

Have you taken the Boldaslove.us black rock audience survey? It only takes 5 minutes!  Click here to start.

Multi-genre songstress Alice Smith will be in residence at Joe’s Pub for three nights this January. She will also be in Philadelphia for one night at the Tin Angel. 

She will be previewing songs from her new album and, hopefully, her acclaimed album “For Lovers, Dreamers and Me”. 

Fri, 01/08/2010     Joe’s Pub – New York, NY       New York, NY       

Thu, 01/14/2010    The Tin Angel                      Philadelphia, PA    

Fri, 01/15/2010     Joe’s Pub – New York, NY       New York, NY

Fri, 01/22/2010     Joe’s Pub – New York, NY       New York, NY 

Tickets for the Joe’s Pub shows may be purchased here.

Alice’s powerful voice and charming personality shine in an intimate setting. A live Alice Smith show is a treat.

Have you taken the Boldaslove.us black rock audience survey? It only takes 5 minutes!  Click here to start.

Atlanta Afro-Punk quartet Tendaberry stops by the studio to talk about their experience as a group forming and beginning to come into their own in the Atlanta music scene.   In this pod we talk at length about the Atlanta Indie Rock scene, the AUC (Morehouse, Clark-Atlanta & Spelman) music and arts scene and about what it means to them being Black Post-punk musicians.

We discuss their rubbing shoulders and working with ATL-scene acts like Jaspects, Deep Cotton, Janelle Monae, London, Spree Wilson, Lmarr the Great, Smalleyez & now defunct group The Slack Republik.

The interview is a walk through the gritty streets of Atlanta’s west end, a re-introduction into the University of Georgia’s college-town music scene in Athens and a discussion of what it takes to persevere as musicians toeing the line of soul and punk.

For more interviews on Atlanta’s literary, art and music scene please check out dominickbrady.com

Music heard in this pod from Atlanta groups:

-Tendaberry

-Jaspects ft. Janelle Monae

-Small Eyez

-The Slack Republic

Tendaberry has also been kind enough to share a song with us, “Prophets” from their EP Am I Still Illmatic?:

Additional links:

• Tendaberry’s Afro-Punk page
• Buy Am I Still Illmatic on iTunes
• Tendaberry on MySpace