STONES THROW/WALE

Last night Stones Throw Records took over the Paradise Rock Club in Boston for their 2009 Showcase tour, featuring a Peanut Butter Wolf VJ set, James Pants live set with Royal Zodiac, Dam Funk DJ set/soul croons and Mayer Hawthorne on the cut as well as on the mic.


First off, we gave a needy dude our extra ticket cos he was broke.

Second off, Dam Funk was billed as "Dan Funk."

Then the show happened. I walked in to Mayer Hawthorne starting his set, which he claimed consisted of every type of music. While I disagree, he did squeeze a ton of stuff in there from space funk to soul funk to Italian disco to bass-rumbling hip hop. He also took time and hollered at J Dilla ("the greatest"). He went on for what seemed like an hour before giving way to Dam Funk ("the Ambassador"), taking the stage with his Jheri curl tucked neatly under his dashing fedora. Dude flashed a 7", seemingly to prove he wasn't just clicking a playlist from his iTunes and let his own beats ride, getting soulful with the vocal over the galactic boogie. He warned "don't be scared of the hook y'all" after noticing some audience members off-put by his chorus "we gonna kill this motherfucker today." The highlight of his set was probably his remix of Animal Collective's "Summertime Clothes," of which AC is apparently letting him do an official remix. Dam said he was doing the preview of the song for Boston exclusively, not that I have any proof that he hasn't played it or won't play it anywhere else, but it was fantastic - like an even more sugar-coated "My Girls" that'll make you sweat your clothes right off. Hypers at the ready.

Next James Pants took the stage with his band, Royal Zodiac. James Pants is a goofy dude, not that one would be surprised after listening to his music. He jumped around a lot in sunglasses and a winter hat playing cowbells. My favorite part of his band was by far Poncho P on the keys and on the vocal for "Crystal Lite," belting out the lyrics with the utmost soul. The bunch also did "KA$H" with a lot of audience callbacks, "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, and The Doors' "Touch Me." Before Peanut Butter Wolf finally took the stage, Mayer Hawthorne came back out and sang three songs (with the same band accompanying but James Pants on drums), "Just Ain't Gonna Work Out," a dub ode to weed, and another.


Peanut Butter Wolf was fantastic, hypnotizing with his manipulated videos as he spun some classic hip hop, pop, and R&B. Highlights included and were not limited to: Fat Boys, Q-Tip, Frank Zappa, Tupac, Jackson 5, Daft Punk, Hall & Oates, De La Soul, Prince and some sort of radio edit of N.W.A. He had the fly Stones Throw Chuck Taylors to cap everything off. Great night even though his sound and mic got shut off eventually.

Dam-Funk

James Pants

Poncho P

Peanut Butter Wolf

PBW

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Wednesday (today, sort of) Clipse will be playing a free show at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT with Wesleyan alum Santigold and non-alum King Khan and the Shrines. Apparently there might be another Wesleyan band opening. Stuff starts there at noon, which is so early but hey it's free. Groove right.

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D.C. rap dude Wale is going to play the Pearl Street ballroom Sunday May 10 on his Attention Deficit tour. He's also going to be doing an in-store signing at Unite in Northampton, who are sponsoring the show. If you did not have enough Wale by the time the show's over that's okay - there's the after party at Sam's Pizza. Go-Go.

Also Wale's on this new Daniel Merriweather track "Change." If you like Jamie Lidell's last record, a.k.a. fairly cheesy whiteboy funk, you'll probably like this (via RCRDLBL).

Also Pitchfork interviewed Wale.

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Also this rules.