Monday, February 28, 2005

UK Gangstas Interviewed Me

MAN! I have interviewed so many people over my years and only a few times in my life have I ever been interviewed. Most of the time it was on some two second shit, but these boys really hooked it up.



Loud shouts to my "mans" Tricksta and Late of the Wolftown Committee out that UK. For real. I been in touch with these folk for a long time and I will tell you this, they are some of the first people I ever heard of from outside this country to be up on down south rap. I mean seriously these boys run deep. When I was in Chicago looking into all the shit happening in Gary, Indiana, these boys were too. They know all about this shit and have been major helps in spreading the word through their Rago Magazine and multiple releases. (I don't know what Rago means, but it sounds Italian, and well, that's GANGSTA!)


Late and Tricksta

Anyway check these boys out at Wolftown Recordings and peep my interview below. Then go 'head and read interviews with the likes of K-Rino (whose song with Late called "Cold World" got major rotation on Damage Control), Cee-Rock and DJ Vlad. Also be sure to check out Tricksta's UK Runnings Mixtape series for a lil education on what really goes on in UK Hip Hop (o.k. it's not grime but it's still thowed). And definitely pick up Late's International Rhyme Spittin' compilation for that song with K-Rino and features from all over the USA, UK, France and Jamaica including cuts from Kuwait, my man Miami Mac, Kidd X, SD3, Kashino, Jai Boo and more.

Read on - Interview with Matt of Houstonsoreal among other things...

See you at South By Southwest...

Saturday, February 26, 2005

South By Southwest Ain't Trippin' This Year
16 - 20 March, 2005


G.R.i.T. Boys, SXSW 2004, Aussies, Austin, TX

Alright y’all here goes. A run down of all the shit I have been working on with South By Southwest. I basically just help them select the hip hop shit and make sure that some down south cats get on there. We’ve got some real hip shit happening so take a look at the list, then go to

www.sxsw.com

and register.

This is just the preliminary announcement as it stands so far….

UPDATE! Trae will now perform on Friday Fox N Hound show and Swishahouse will perform on Wednesday Back Room show. And Ojos de Brujo has cancelled for Saturday night. Working on a suitable replacement.

NEW UPDATE! HSE will now be performing on Wednesday night at Back Room!

Full List of Hip Hop Here

Wednesday, March 16th, Backroom
Bun B & MDDL FNGZ, Port Arthur/Houston
Devin the Dude, Houston
Swishahouse - Paul Wall, Archie Lee, Cooda Bang, Houston
CHOPS, Philly
Play N Skillz, Dallas
Partners N Crime, New Orleans
Basswood Lane, Austin
Abstraq, Beaumont
HSE, Houston
Barely Broke Family, Austin
DJ Rapid Ric and DJ Chill in between sets, Austin/Houston

Thursday, March 17th, The Vibe (all live bands with rappers)
Scarface and the Formaldehyde Funk Band, Houston
Bavu Blakes, Garland/Austin
Money Waters, Dallas
Zin, Houston
Mojoe, San Antonio

Thursday, March 17th, Zero Degrees
Diplo, Philly
M.I.A. (maybe, hoping, trying – she’ll be at sxsw, on this show and/or something else)
DJ Lt. Dan, Delaware (with special guest?)
DJ Rapid Ric, Austin (with special guests?)
DJ Chill, Houston (with special guests?)
DJ Panko, Spain (with special guests?)
Nick Nack, Austin (with special guests?)

Friday, March 18th, Fox and Hound
Slim Thug, Houston
Chingo Bling, Houston
Trae, Houston
Grit Boys, Houston
DSR, Dallas
K-Rino and South Park Coalition, Houston
Ovadose, Gary, Indiana – formerly of Grind Family
Ghostwriters, Houston
MC Fatal, Austin
Deep, Houston
DJ Chill/Rapid Ric between sets, Houston/Austin

Friday, March 18th, Zero Degrees
Josh Martinez, Sleep, Chiccarones, Canada
Studemont Project, Houston
Grand Buffet, Pittsburgh
Lunar Heights, San Francisco
Dalek,
No Luck Club, Vancouver
Kevin Coval, Chicago

Saturday Night, March 19th, International Caribbean Lights
Daara J, Senegal
C-Mon & Kypski, Netherlands
Cartel de Santa, Mexico
Eternia, Canada
Moodruff, Canada

Saturday, March 19th, Zero Degrees
Frank N Dank, Detroit
Non Phixion, New York
Zion I, Bay Area
Scavone, New York
Tre Hardson, LA
Tahir, Tallahassee
Doujah Raze, New York
Malcovich of B.L.X., LA
ATX Records Click, Austin

Spread the word and come out.

There’s literally like 950 more bands playing and shit…

Austin, TX March 16 – 20, 2005. www.sxsw.com
EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE – BE ALTERED – CANCELLED BY ACT OF GOD OR HATERATION BY A MUSIC BUSINESS TYPE…

JeffLilesSoReal.Blogspot.org


That's a series of photos I took of my man Jeff Liles this past weekend. I was hanging out in Dallas and had to go see the big homey. For those who don't know, Jeff was on the Colors soundtrack. His Decadent Dub Team song "Six Gun" Remixed by Dr. Dre.

I first saw Decadent Dub Team in Houston in 1990. I actually wasn't sure who they were, I just saw they were playing the Axiom and I was like "Decadent Dub Team? Where do I know them from?" But I was like man, I have to go see them. So I went down there to the Axiom and the shit was packed. DDT was opening for Billygoat. And I saw the show and was like, damn this shit is wild. Their DJ, J-Son was off the hook, a really young MYK was spittin' and there was Jeff Liles just flowing to his beats. Weird shit, pre-Anticon, pre-any hip hop weird-out shit.

And it was weird. This girl I later met and found out was fucking insane jumped on stage and started fucking with Jeff and was like getting all in his face, so he took this huge watch he was carrying, like a 5 foot watch and pushed her away with it. I don't want to say hit cuz it wasn't really a hit, but it was fucked up she jumped on stage and was trippin' and Jeff hit her with a huge watch. There I said it.

Then after the show I met these DDT dudes and told them King Tee was playing at a club not too far away, but we soon found out we were too late for King Tee. Anyway, that night, after the show, Jeff hipped me to one of the most jammin' tapes I ever purchased. Shit, actually, this was one of the first CD's I ever purchased. Paris - The Devil Made Me Do It. Fuck with that. Jeff was like "You heard of Paris?" I said I'd heard of him but didn't hear the album yet and he hit me with an advance tape. I was floored. And for the rest of time I always kept in touch with this dude.

Funny story related to SXSW. Decadent Dub Team was actually banned from South By Southwest at one point in time for sparking up a joint on stage on a showcase that I think may have included Ultramagentic MCs. I missed that show but heard the uproar. Jeff also released a 45 called "Meltdown" that was a straight Vanilla Ice diss. Now he's about to release a documentary on Bill's Records. Dude's off the hook. Jeff Liles...

Monday, February 21, 2005

Rest in Peace Dr. Hunter S. Thompson



It’s a fucking dark day for journalism. One of our kingpins has offed himself and the world is shaking like a zillion startled babies. The moon is almost full and the cow has missed his mark, landed on Mars and made it his home. Hunter S. Thompson is dead. The pioneer, shit, inventor of Gonzo journalism, from all reports, has taken his own life in the wee hours of Sunday, March 20th, 2005.



Aspen Times

Melbourne Herald Sun

Indian Express

New York Times

ABC



CNN

Salon



Guardian, UK

KRT

Denver Post



San Francisco Chronicle

CBC Canada

Canada




Louisville Courier-Journal Obit

Louisville Courier-Journal Guestbook

Hunter Articles linked from Drudge Report

ESPN Column Archive



I don’t really know where I got my first taste of Hunter S. Thompson. I know “Where the Buffalo Roam” was my father’s favorite movie, and I didn’t really get it as a youngster. I might not have known he was a real person, but I was aware of dude for pretty much my whole life from seeing the movie and hearing my parents and their friends talk about his shit. But it wasn’t until I finally read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in it’s entirety in 1993 (I tried in high school, but once again, really wasn’t ready for it) that the dude really took hold of me. Like some of the greatest drugs he proselytized in the book, Thompson’s writing shook me into the nether regions of my soul, a curious boy bouncing from wall to wall in search of something as exciting as this writers one weekend in Vegas.

Gonzo.org

Message Board

The shit was insane. I mean, I just happened to read Fear and Loathing (at the request of my friend Joris) at the height of my “lets see how much acid, ecstasy and mushrooms we can take on top of all this pot, liquor and beer” phase, and it fit like a glove and popped me right out of my seat. Like, I’m not trying to be Hunter S. Thompson here, I’m just saying, fools were getting fucked up. Coming down on valiums hard after one of those nights just to fucking wake up and not want to kill anybody. And here I was reading this book thinking the whole time, “we gotta hit the road.” I was the most motivated that I ever was.



I pretty much hit the road big in the 90’s. And throughout those ten years read all of Hunter’s shit. The Curse of Lono, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, Generation of Swine, old Rolling Stone articles all that shit. The man made my head spin on more than one occasion and definitely inspired me to keep going when the times got weird. As he said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” And like somehow I turned real pro at rolling with the times when the shit got weird. You have to when you write about music for magazines like Murder Dog. Shit gets fucking real weird.

Lots of Great Links



I’ve always kind of flown by the seat of my pants, but at times, Hunter’s words fucking helped me to just actually put said pants on.

Slate Article



And now here’s the news that the man, the one man I figured I still had a chance to meet (John Peel , Malcolm X, John Belushi and Martin Luther all being dead), has shot himself in the head in his Aspen home. Is it true? Did you really kill yourself? Did you bet too big and win on the NBA All Star Game? Who was there? What the fuck happened Mr. Thompson? What?



Hunter S. Thompson you fucking fucked me, like everybody else. Rest in Peace.

Here's a couple MP3's to help you get through all the shit.

Short Texas - White Cup

B-1 - Hogg

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Last Nights Damage Control - Fundraiser - Bun B in the house

Well it went down last night, we raised $865 for the station (kind of pathetic but...) and Bun B swang thru, among many others. Rodrigo from Pound Magazine was in the house. Peep him on down while you're jammin' the real.

Download and Jam Damage Control Fund Drive Edition 1 Here

Friday, February 04, 2005

Download and Jam My Exclusive World Hip Hop Radio Show or Die



Hello my blogosphere fools. Lookee here, today is a real special day. KPFT is letting me in the building before sundown to host a special edition of Music Beyond Borders, their world music program. So I'm getting together all of my international hip-hop type joints and we're just gonna jam on down for a cool 90 minutes this afternoon.

Download Music Beyond Borders 02/04/05 with Matt Sonzala Here

You'll hear Ojos de Brujo, Daara J, Tati Que Baracho, Bidew Bou Bess, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Sway & Wonda and way more...

Jam it on down and tell me what you think...

PEACE!
matt sonzala

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Last Nights Damage Control - Da Good, Da Bad & Da Ugly

Well, I'm not going to comment too much on last nights show. It was the closest we ever had to an explosion in our almost 3 year history. Download (please don't just stream it please) here and post a comment, lemme know what you think. Lots of great new Texas jams on this bitch, and an explosion.

Damage Control Morning of Februrary 3rd 2005

And after the explosion, Big Lou from Longpaper University got pulled over by the police in our parking lot and I look out the window and I'm like -- lights flashing all in my face thru the studio window -- WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON NOW?!?!? THEY GOT BIG LOU! But they just gave his ass a ticket for making a wrongful left... Why they hatin' on the left like that? Anyway, I expect fuckin' comments. And I wanna hit 11,000 hits today so spread the word.

Oh yeah, and after last nights show, I think I am gonna try to get Willie D into music journalism. Cuz if he's mad at what he's talkin' about in this interview, shit... I'd love to see what he has to say to some of these editors the day he gets his first articles back and it's been "touched." He'd clean up a lot of these damn magazines, I tell you what....