To all the WoodGrainFronts readers, I'm sorry. We've neglected you, and the blog, for far too long. No excuses can ...excuse our thoughtless laziness and neglect.

Henceforth, WoodGrainFronts as you know it will cease to exist. In its place will reside a new and wonderful blog focused on design, architecture, and physical craft. It won't be a re-blog. It won't be an image blog. The WoodGrainFronts of the future will be a thought-blog. Where mr. Emmett VanRiper and I, Alex Bisceglie will rant, rave, and wax poetic on all topics ...well, not all topics, as we laid out above. But I'm sure you get the idea.

This rebirth will happen sometime in the near future. I'm hoping I can get all those pesky ducks in their respective rows, the i's dotted, and the miss-placed modifiers situated in their rightful positions by mid-next week. Yes, this is quite the ambitious schedule, but YOU, our faithful readers deserve it. And by YOU, our faithful readers, I mean me. Because I'm fairly certain this [url] has long been removed from all feed-readers, aggregators, and frequently visited bookmark categories of all but the most careless, and who could place blame?

cheers.

Posted by alex at 12:40 PM | Permalink

Hi. Remember me? No? Well, thats okay... Don't get too excited, I'm just posting to rip off a track on MadDecent's blog. But it's relevant, so deal.

This track is amazing in so many ways, I'd have to round up quintuplets (hollar at you Pisners) to count them out using fingers and toes of the same DNA. Blah Blah pitched up vocals. Blah Blah teddy-bear dance-style melody.

Apparently, the track is from some Paper Route Records (tripod.com website? baller.) outfit out of some place called 'Huntsville' - suspect? Regardless, my PBR infused rant ends now.

download Woodgrain [direct]

Posted by alex at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Quick post here, as I've got about 6 hours to finish writing my thesis paper (procrastination what?)... But yes . Hollow Bones has always been one of my top favorite phenomenal Wu-Tang tracks, and if you know me, you know I really love the Wu. But for some reason, I never checked out the sample source (the entire track is basically a couple chopped loops from the same song). That is, until Ben threw me Syl Johnson's Is it Because I'm Black [phenomenal album] and I stumbled upon the title track - Is it Because I'm Black... jaw-dropping, eye-bugging, epileptic seizure style convulsions just kind of hit me and left me speechless for maybe 10 seconds... to be replaced with a big goofy rictus of a smile.

download Is It Because I'm Black [direct] | buy the album [amazon]
download Hollow Bones [direct] | buy the W [amazon]

Posted by alex at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A diamond in the rough, a super tongue in cheek contemporary baltimore club tune. If there was such a thing as comedy club, this would be a #1 tune. This showed up on holler.board this week and proceeded a wave of laugher and headshakes from all around. Just have a listen and have a great weekend. I'm off to the Borgata.

download Tittsworth - Nappy Head Ho

Posted by blake at 07:35 AM | Permalink

WARNING: blatant conflict of interest follows...

...just kidding. FlavorHerd is Ben Woods (fellow WoodgrainFronts poster), Sam Retch-Bogart, and Jru Burrows.

I met these guys way back in my college days, at the illustrious MMS/MT departments of Northeastern University. The incredible flavorherd consistently delivers phenomenal mixes, remixes, and riddims to 'get the ladies open' as Jru can sometimes be heard to say.

And, word on the street, you can catch them at The Enormous Room in Boston (pronounced Baaaaaaaaahstaahn) this Saturday. Clearly worth it.

Download their newest mix: Radio Vol. 2

Posted by alex at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (141)

Unless you've been hiding under a rock and don't read any sort of music related news, then the whole DJ Drama & DJ Cannon arrest ting might be news to you. But everyone else knows at least of a little bit of the story. The whole legality of the situation is just another reminder of archaic laws being enforced in a fluid, progressive society. Gangsta Grillz was Drama's series of hip-hop mixtapes that had huge impact on many rappers' careers. And the first full length LP Drama will be producing will be "Gangsta Grillz: The Album" to be released in the middle of May. This is a hot tune that's been floating around for a few months now. It's a OK quality radio rip of what should be the debut single from the album. I think it's a great spring-time tune to get your headnod on to. The backing track is spot on, not to mention the star studded lineup: T.I., Young Jeezy, Willie The Kid, Jim Jones, Rick Ross & Young Buck. The rest of the album will be nothing to be shy about either. Juelz Santana, Lil Wayne, Three 6 Mafia, Clipse, Pharrell and Busta Rhymes (and more!!) are all rumored to featured.

download DJ Drama - Feds Takin' Pictures (Feat. Young Jeezy, Willie The Kid, Jim Jones, Rick Ross & T.I.)
buy Free Drama & DJ Don Cannon T-Shirts

Posted by blake at 12:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)

The Double is my new ish. Special thanks go to Tikva for the intro and for hype-ing them up (which they deserve, really). I have no background info on these folk, but I'm sure all anyone would care to know (and more?) is just a hyperlink away. So what do I know? The Double throws out dirty, grimey, filthy, refreshing tracks. Crooning, whining and distortion in the best combo. Well, their debut, Palm Fronds is, anyways. According to a certain Other Music counter-jockey, they lost much of that special something on their second full length. In any event, Palm Fronds is perfect for this weird, transient weather we've been having... and for the shift that NewYorkCity goes through at the season-changes.

There's a Deli feature (shout out to Xin) on The Double, but I'm not going to read it and regurgitate, etc.

download Blanket On The Beach [direct]
download A Throw Of Distance [direct]
download Standing On A Levee [direct]

buy Palm Fronds [Other Music]

Posted by alex at 01:10 AM | Permalink

In light of today's fantastic weather, here's a nice jam from Roy Ayers Ubiquity. Everyone should have this in their collection. Perfect for the spring weather ahead.

download Everybody Loves the Sunshine [direct]

Posted by alex at 11:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Life has been crazy the past couple weeks, months... But I recently managed to point my middle finger at everything and take a couple hours to throw records in my apartment... with just the right amount of scotch (Glenfiddich, how could I live without you?). Strange how nice it is to do nothing except enjoy music. Strange how easy it is to forget that feeling, forget that option — even when you most need these things.

One of the stand-outs of my little escape was Ahmad Jamal's 1972 Reevaluations: The Impulse Years. Beautiful record. Ahmad is light yet passionate on his keys, tripping all up and down the board, not afraid to break off and go nuts, but always catching himself before things got too carried away. That's a little bit like how I feel right now, only my fumblings seem a lot less graceful. But who ever said grad school was easy? Thesis, bah.

But back to the music... Ahmad Jamal has long been one of my favorite musicians — not only of Jazz musicians, not only keyboard players, but of musicians. One of those Pittsburgh-bred holy-men, Jamal has played with all the greats.

Tranquility has always been my favorite cut on this record. Melancholy, playful, the ultimate haunting bi-polar, with the slant forever towards the dark. Recorded in 1968 and produced by the great Bob Thiele, this recording of Tranquility might be eclipsed buy other great tunes of the time... but for a cool, relaxing evening, it's hard to beat.

download Tranquility [local - 20mb]

Posted by alex at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I'm a day late, but thanks to my single drink fest last night, I spent some time tis morning indulging my sneaker freak side and came across a new track that Nike is using for their 25th anniversary AF1 campaign. Nike has enough money to buy talent ust ask Jordan and Lebron so its only fair that they do the same for thier music. Classic, by Nas, KrsOne, Kanye, and Rakim isn't due out until Feb 20th, and even then it'll be a one shot Nike Itunes thing so until then

download "Classic" [zshare] fixed

Posted by john at 05:56 PM | Permalink