Spam All-Stars Introducing: Spam All-Stars

Miami’s Spam All-Stars need no introduction for anyone into the Afro-Latin fusion scene. But just in case you didn’t get the memo, DJ LeSpam and his flavorful ensemble have assembled some of their hottest tracks into one of the tightest releases yet in World Music Network’s Introducing series. Those offerings so far have been heavy on traditional music, yet for the Spammers, tradition is just one ingredient muddling their rhythmic mojito. A blend of samples, turntables, and big beats along with tres, timbales, trombones, and flutes keeps everything fluid and funky. Tracks like “Ochimini” and “Afrika” leave no booty unshaken in their wake, kind of like a ritmo’ hurricane.

Interview: Adam Wallacavage

“It sounds cliché but I was really blown away as a child by the Haunted Mansion ride and the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride at Disney World,” remembers Philadelphia artist Adam Wallacavage. This is obvious after a walk-through of his Les Trésors de la Tanière de Neptune show (which wrapped July 26 at NYC’s Jonathan Levine Gallery).

Wallacavage transformed the space with a panoply of beautiful octopi-meet-Gothic light fixtures set against a backdrop of undulating kelp wallpaper, all in a ’60s cartoon palette of flat mint, purple, turquoise, and black.

The man’s fantastical chandeliers and sconces don’t come cheap (running anywhere from $3,200 to $14,000), but you may be inspired to learn that he made everything in the show in three months, by hand in his home using cast plaster, epoxy resin, and lamp parts. And the do-it-yourself-ness doesn’t stop there. When he’s not out snapping carnival rides or his friends doing 360 nose-grinds, the accomplished photographer is working on the Victorian-like interior of his house in South Philly and creating custom wallpapers for his company, Curio Wallcoverings. The projects may vary, but a very personal aesthetic runs throughout.

XLR8R: What was the seedling of the idea for the chandeliers that you make?

Adam Wallacavage: I think it was the idea of creating the things I simply wanted. I’ve spent countless hours in my life scouring through flea markets and antique stores and decorative arts museums and I never had money to buy the things that inspired me. Or I felt this compulsive urge to acquire things that was kinda obsessive and not very good feeling. I basically realized that I had the talents to hand-make the things I wanted to see and it has been such a blessing to have gotten to the point of where I am now, where I feel I can have anything I can imagine, if I can figure out a way to make it.

How long does it take you to make one (approximately)?

At first it took a few months to build one, but after a while I learned to make them faster cause I knew what I was doing. I made most of the pieces in my show at the Jonathan Levine gallery, as well as the wallpaper, in three months.

What is your favorite thing that you have done/made recently?

I made a set of three chandeliers called “The Argus,” “The Spawn of the Argus,” and “Son of the Spawn of the Argus;” they are all glossy white and the large one has a sort of oval shape to it. I’m excited to hang the set in my living room after the show, as well as a few others. I’m really not sure what is my favorite though–they are like children in a way. I’m excited about the sconces though. I learned so much over the past couple years that I had a ton of fun making the chandeliers for my NYC show. I made the stuff with my house in mind, so I had a place to store them. I have a bunch of rooms in my house at the moment without lights in them and I can’t wait to bring the show back to my place!

What are some of the most unique curios you have in your house?

I have a collection of mounted two-headed dogs, the world’s longest cat tail that I got from an old sideshow, and a live fruit bat that I keep as a pet in my attic, but my favorite curio is my swimming pool. I live in an old Victorian brownstone in the city and my back yard is insanely tiny. I had a pool built that is eight feet in diameter but 25 feet deep. I use it to practice freediving and it is lined with cast coral and is stocked with fish. You can jump off the top of my house into it.

Really? That sounds amazing!

I know, but I made all that up, but it would be cool to own the world’s longest cat tail, right?

What is your favorite themed room?

The only real themed room is the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea dining room; of course it is my favorite since it was the inspiration for the Octopus Chandelier. I’m working on some others though. The artist Niagara Detroit just stayed over last night and I want to make the guest bedroom into an opium den-themed room with custom-made wallpaper designed by Niagara. I just started an artist designed wallpaper company called Curio Wallcoverings and we are working with a bunch of different artists, such as Shepard Fairey and many others, to come.

Name two or three things that have inspired your general aesthetic.

I like things to be outrageous yet timeless, beautiful yet mysterious, and dark but inspired by a good sense of spirituality.

What is your favorite camera?

It doesn’t exist yet, but it would be a digital panoramic waterproof camera that could take really close up wide shots of cool things.

How much of what you shoot is staged and how much is random accident?

I wait for things to happen, so the accident is somewhat luck and being in the right place at the right time, but I like to find the best angle and I like things to be as real as possible but surreal at the same time. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of portrait photography of artists in their studios and such. I would like to put out another book that is all artist related with portraits, studios, and shots of neat stuff hanging around.

What is important to you in a photograph?

I like them to be entertaining. I worked in a one-hour lab for a long time and I would look at hundreds of photos and I would put aside about one or two each day that were interesting. It was quite influential on my overall aesthetic, actually. Usually the photos that jumped out at me were shot by kids and they had the most amazing compositions. I think my friend Ben Woodward, who worked with me for a little while, had a name for it… something like “accidental snapshot masterpieces,” or something on those lines.

In contrast to what seems like a sort of hand-drawn, shambolic Space 1026 aesthetic, your work is so clean and sharp. Do you have any funny stories related to this contrast, or about having a studio there?

I would like to claim responsibility for the Space 1026 aesthetic in the beginning. When I first moved in there, I brought in my entire junk knick-knack collection and started hanging stuff up everywhere. I screwed taxidermy to the ceiling as well as my collections of vintage bicycles, skateboards, and old amusement park signs. I put up Christmas lights everywhere and made my studio out of old barn planks. Other Space members were not very happy and even Andrew Jeffery Wright would make fun of me for trying to make the place look like some corny themed chain restaurant like Bennigan’s or something. I was thinking more on the lines of fun-house-art-freak-show. It turned into that in the end, and I’m proud. I moved out of Space 1026 when I bought my house, since it is big enough to hold a few different work studios. I was doing a lot to fix up the top floor of Space 1026 at the time but it felt unrewarding since we were just renting the place. Working on my house is really good feeling. I don’t know about the “clean and sharp” part of my aesthetic though, since I’m terrible at paying attention to details. Maybe I’m just good at sweeping things under the rug.

What’s one project you’ve never done because it’s too crazy, expensive, or difficult, or you have no time?

I used to do a lot of silkscreens of toys back when I worked out of Space 1026 and I would love to get back to that sort of work, but with painting instead. I want to make paintings of silkscreen halftone separations in layers on glass and put them together. I think it would be fun.

What’s the best thing in Philly?

Besides freedom and getting a shout out in that one Van Halen song, I would say City Hall. It is the most amazing building and is decorated with hundreds of beautiful sculptures designed by Alexander Milne Calder, who was the father of Alexander Stirling Calder, who was the father of Alexander Calder, the sculptor and inventor of the mobile. Of course my friends are the best part, it’s amazing how many good artists are moving into town now.

What’s your favorite food?

Potato chips and hot dogs, but I can’t eat them too much ’cause they will kill me. I like spearfishing and grilling freshly caught fish at the beach.

Who are your style icons?

It sounds cliché, but I was really blown away as a child by the Haunted Mansion ride and the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Ride at Disney World. I just like the idea of making things that go on forever with endless imagination, never knowing if it’s complete or what is around the corner. I just love all things eccentric.

Pon Di Wire: Leroy Smart, Mr. Vegas

Is Japanese selecta Sami T, from world clash champion sound Mighty Crown, now an artist? That’s the word from a recent press update from Game Over promoters Irish & Chin. Following fellow soundsystem men like Tony Matterhorn and Fire Links, who’ve transitioned from soundsystem hosts to recording careers, Sami T is now recording and producing. So far, he’s guested with the aforementioned Matterhorn, Cutty of Coppershot, and TOK’s Bay C. He’s also receiving tons of requests to voice riddims from different producers. “I love music, so this was a natural next step,” said the selecta. Sami has been cutting his own riddims and has recorded a new track with up-and-coming artist Konshens.

The World’s Fastest Man, Usain Bolt, is back home in Jamaica and getting a hero’s welcome. The nation’s leaders met him when he arrived in Kingston on Monday. Crime rates in Jamaica’s poor communities decreased during Bolt’s historic Olympic run, and the athlete remarked, “I hope they keep the unity and what I want is for everyone to keep everything cool… hold down the war and mek we just deal wid the unity right now.”

Of course Bolt was celebrated with a concert in his home parish of Trelawny. The event featured Shaggy, Beenie man, Richie Spice, Tanya Stephens, Voice Mail, RDX, Timberlee, Stacious, D’Angel, Bugle, Terror 3000, Tifa, and numerous professional dance crews.

Foundation dancehall singer from the ’70s and ’80s, Leroy Smart, humbly known as The Don, is back with a new hit called “One of a Kind.” Known for his ’70s smash “Ballistic Affair” and lovers rock hits in the 1980s, Smart has been absent from the charts for some time, though he seems optimistic about the future. “Leroy is in all the parties, my song a play at everywhere too, so is a storm me a go create,” he said.

Fans are awaiting the new Jay Will-produced video for Mr. Vegas’ latest hit, “Round of Applause.” The video director also shot Vegas’ “Tek Wey Yuhself” and “Daggering.”

Sweet singer Tarrus Riley got his first product endorsement. And being that he’s a Rasta, it fits that he’ll rep a juice drink. Riley’s name and face will lead an add campaign for Ocean Spray cranberry juice. “It’s positive and it represent what my music represents: the healthy lifestyle, refreshing, a good thing,” Riley told Charlotte, NC-based mag Creative Loafing.

Reggae News U.K. has an excellent tribute to a 1980s dub poet whose name might not be familiar to many. Michael Smith, who died August 17, 1983, had just issued a strikingly poignant debut LP on Island Records. Although not as well known as fellow reggae poets Linton Kwesi Johnson or Mutabaruka, Smith’s release had the makings of a classic. Reggae News pays due respect to the life of a star cut down in his prime.

Live and direct from Jamaica, “Poor People Defenda” singer Chuck Fendaperforms in San Francisco at Club Six on Saturday, September 13. It’s a rare Bay Area appearance for the artist, who will be joined by locals Audiopharmacy, DJ Stepwise, and Ivier from Jah Warrior Shelter crew.

Reggae Vibes September 1978 Revive Top 10
1. John Holt “Everyday Is Like A Holiday“ (Cord)
2. Prince Far I “Frontline Speech“ (Cry Tuff)
3. Freddie McKay “Jah Love I“ (Lucky Star)
4. Jacob Miller “Standing Firm“ (Top Ranking)
5. Cuddly T “Make A Truce“ (Top Ranking)
6. Mighty Diamonds “Danger In Your Eyes“ (Gussie)
7. Earl Zero “Shackles And Chains“ (Freedom Sounds)
8. Calman Scott “One Teacher One Preacher“ (MML)
9. The Congos “Row Fisherman Row“ (Black Art)
10. Welton Irie & Lone Ranger “Big Fight“ (Channel One)

Girl Talk CD Release Delayed

You can still downloadGirl Talk‘s sample-heavy new album, Feed the Animals, but those who want the physical CD will have to wait a tad longer, as the release date has been pushed back to October 21, due to manufacturing issues. The disc will apparently be worth the wait though. According to a press release, the physical copy has been delayed “to ensure the product is perfect and distinctive.” Which means the man born Gregg Gillis might just have something special up his sleeve for this disc.

Occupy yourselves by catching him in the live setting at one of these dates:

09/18 Newark, DE: University of Deleware
09/19 Saratoga Springs, NY: Skidmore College†
10/09 Philadelphia, PA: Starlight Ballroom*
10/10 Washington, DC: 9:30 Club*
10/11 Baltimore, MD: Sonar*
10/13 Carrboro, NC: Cats Cradle*
10/14 Asheville, NC: Orange Peel*
10/15 Knoxville, TN: Valarium
10/16 Atlanta, GA: Variety Playhouse*
10/17 New Orleans, LA: House of Blues*
10/18 Houston, TX: Warehouse Live*
10/20 Austin, TX: Emo’s*
10/21 Dallas, TX: Palladium Ballroom*
10/23 Tucson, AZ: Rialto Theater*
10/24 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theater**
10/25 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theater**
10/27 San Francisco, CA: The Fillmore**
10/28 San Francisco, CA: The Fillmore**
10/30 Salt Lake City, UT: In the Venue**
11/01 Lawrence, KS: The Granada Theatre**
11/03 Minneapolis, MN: First Avenue**
11/04 Milwaukee, WI: Turner Hall Ballroom**
11/05 Urbana, IL: Canopy Club**
11/06 Nashville, TN: Cannery Ballroom**
11/07 Louisville, KY: Headliners Music Hall**
11/09 Cincinnati, OH: Bogarts**
11/10 Cleveland, OH: Beachland Ballroom**
11/11 Pontiac, MI: Eagle Theatre**
11/12 Toronto, ON: Koolhaus**
11/13 Montreal, QC: Club Soda**
11/14 Foxborough, MA: Showcase**
11/15 New York, NY: Terminal 5**
11/16 New York, NY: Terminal 5**

Inbox: Girl Talk

† = w/ Prefuse 73
* w/ Hearts of Darkness and Grand Buffet
** w/ CX Kidtronik and The Death Set

Photo by Laura Buckman.

Deerhoof “Offend Maggie”

The San Francisco indie rock sweethearts in Deerhoof will release their latest 14-track offering, Offend Maggie, next month. In the meantime, we are bringing you the introspective album’s namesake track to download. For this short-but-sweet song, the band has paired singer/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki’s endearing vocals with contrasting harmonies from drummer Greg Saunier over John Dieterich’s beautiful and detailed acoustic guitar work. The result is a classically deerhoofian pop-rock lullaby with memorable hooks that will “ring, ring” (like Matsuzaki on the chorus) in your head long after the song has floated away. Lulu McAllister

Deerhoof – Offend Maggie

The Death Set “Negative Thinking (Treasure Fingers Remix)”

Baltimore-by-way-of-Brooklyn-by-way-of-Sydney three-piece outfit The Death Set released its noisy debut album, Worldwide, earlier this year. The band has gotten Bonde do Role, Australian DJs Bumblebeez and Gloves, and American Treasure Fingers to sign on for “The Death Set Remix” 12”. Here, Treasure Fingers (of “Cross the Dancefloor” fame), has taken the band’s happy, electro-punk ditty, “Negative Thinking,” and dried it out for the dirty set. With its stripped-down, distorted vocals, grittier synths, and a harder hitting beat, this version has left no room for negativity. Lulu McAllister. Photo by Josh Sisk.

Negative Thinking (Treasure Fingers Remix)

Lindstrøm Where You Go I Go Too

Much as Art Deco strove to amalgamate early 20th Century forms into function, the asymmetrical ’80s attempted compartmentalizing ’70s flow. Every few decades, monolithic excess and avant empathy couple for understanding. Such is the case on this solo debut by Norway’s Arpeggio Ambassador and Kosmische Portamento Prince. Three tracks (one 28 minutes long) progress almost an hour, beardo-disco carefully sequencing urbane rhythmic darting with Balearic dyes that complement the synth-prog motifs of Jarre, Cerrone, Moroder, Faltermeyer, and Göttsching. When a lesser artist suspends ruffled melodies it can lead to an overly moony phenomenon known as the “aurora boring-all-us.” But Lindstrøm gradually converges panting intervals of analog travelogues, the polychrome orchestration crowning into a stepped monument to retro-modernism.

Of Montreal Skeletal Lamping

Punctuation is so phallic–all balls, rods, dangles. And Of Montreal’s ninth full-length is heavily punctuated, erected through tonal questions, exclamations, and commas. These digitally grafted 15 tracks open with a salvo schizoid with percussive moxie and choral phlegm. It throws a gauntlet–conform to nonconformity–but for oversexed funk the juice is worth the squeeze. Past the initial zippers, clasps, and folds come fleshy, falsetto protrusions–direct and ambiguous and coital. This Afro-prog strawberry burn is stippled with batucada ellipses and disco-bass clauses, the Plastic Ono Band’s unflinchingly primal transients and house music’s plinky piano U4IA. Toning down vexations to glaze pop with pop shots, Kevin Barnes has impregnated his androgynous sentimentality with increased potency.

Infinite Livez vs. Stade Morgan Freeman’s Psychedelic Semen

Infinite Livez’s hip-hop is an acquired taste. The British MC has a sometimes-decent delivery and sports an undeniable imagination, but his avant-garde approach can be a hindrance. Working for a second time with Swiss production team Stade, here the rhymer creates tracks that have respectable elements yet ultimately are too deranged to be dope. On the eerie, metal-tinged “Slack Babbath,” he doesn’t really even rap–he just makes incoherent noises. To Stade’s credit, as bizarre as these tracks can be, their beat work usually has a solid base. And at times Infinite Livez can be an impressive leftfield MC (“Hoxton Smoothie,” “Track Ten”). On the whole, though, there’s not enough focus to provide a quality listen.

RZA: Beyond Shaolin

It’s mid-afternoon in Los Angeles on an unusually cool Saturday in June. Robert Diggs, the RZA, is darting around town, cell phone pressed to his ear, running numerous errands before he sets off next week on a North American tour that will take him through 20 cities in about as many days. The tall and wiry MC/producer, whose lauded and often-imitated production style helped to redefine hip-hop in the early 1990s, has overseen the Wu-Tang Clan dynasty for over 15 years–through success, tragedy, and its fair share of tribulation.

Snacks & Attacks
On tour, RZA will unveil the latest incarnation of his storied Bobby Digital character, an alter ego he introduced to listeners a decade ago with Bobby Digital in Stereo. Approached as a concept album–one that found the Staten Island rapper espousing lurid tales of sex, violence, and ghetto life from the perspective of a devious and somewhat misogynistic hero–In Stereo was released at a time when the Wu-Tang brand was still fairly untarnished. Once-smitten critics hadn’t yet begun leveling claims that the nine-member crew and its extended family were over-saturating the market with releases. It was a different era.

Since then much has changed in the 39-year-old RZA’s personal and professional life. In 2000, his mother passed away. Four years later his cousin and founding Wu-Tang Clan member Russell Jones–Ol’ Dirty Bastard–died of an apparent drug overdose in a New York City recording studio. And late last year, rumors of internal strife among Wu-Tang Clan members surfaced while promoting 8 Diagrams–the group’s first album since 2001’s
Iron Flag.

“The 8 Diagrams campaign was kinda sour,” RZA admits, the sound of L.A. traffic swelling in the background. “I was called a few bad names by my own crew. So I felt like, ‘Hold on, man, I’m a master of hip-hop. I helped bring this hip-hop generation to where it is.’ And for people to just put me to the side like that, I’m not going for that shit.”

That shit is complicated. Last year, during a video interview, Raekwon claimed that RZA was withholding money from the group–a charge that RZA categorically denied when questioned about it several days later on Tim Westwood’s U.K.-based radio show. Adding to the drama, Raekwon criticized RZA’s production on 8 Diagrams. In a separate interview, Ghostface Killah then voiced his disapproval of the production on the album, suggesting that the Clan should have enlisted Pharrell or perhaps Timbaland to produce a couple tracks. Official word is that no lingering rift exists. But today, as RZA recounts the episode, it still seems to weigh heavily on his mind.

When the conversation shifts to the topic of Digi Snacks–the third Bobby Digital album–RZA’s mood lightens. He reports that last night he completed mastering the album and that, when the tour is over, he’ll begin work on scoring the second season of Afro-Samurai. The latter pursuit, RZA’s burgeoning career as a film composer, is what initially prompted his relocation to Los Angeles back in 2000. While he still maintains residence in New York, Hollywood has been demanding more of his time–both as a composer and, more recently, as an actor. With supporting roles in films like American Gangster and Derailed, as well as the forthcoming Repossession Mambo and Life Is Hot in Cracktown, RZA has continued to expand the scope of his creative work.

Beat Street
“I started hip-hop as an MC first, taught by the GZA,” RZA says. “But when it came to producing, we used to always have to go to different producers’ houses, whether we were trying to catch up with Marley Marl, D/R Period, or EZ Moe Bee. They all was good producers, but I felt like they wasn’t MCs, so they wasn’t making a beat you can rap to. They was making beats you could party to and dance to.”

After his first hip-hop group, Force of the Imperial Master (with GZA and ODB), disbanded in the late 1980s, RZA says he was determined to learn production. “My manager at the time didn’t really believe me when I told him I wanted to make beats,” he says. “So I gave him $500 and was like, ‘Yo, can you help me get a machine?’ He was like, ‘Well, that’s not enough to buy a machine, but you can rent one.’ So I rented an SP1200 [sampler and] a Yamaha four-track and started making my own beats.”

While learning production, RZA landed a deal with Tommy Boy Records. The resulting EP, 1991’s Ooh I Love You Rakeem, was released under the name Prince Rakeem. In the video for the single “Ooh We Love You Rakeem,” a fresh-faced 22-year-old RZA is surrounded by women vying for his love and attention. Produced with the help of Prince Paul, the track channeled the tongue-in-cheek vibe of Biz Markie or Del tha Funkee Homosapien’s I Wish My Brother George Was Here. But there was also a darker, more theatrical undercurrent at play.

“[Then] I wound up getting into trouble,” RZA says, referring to a brief jail sentence for a felony. “I had to go stay in the streets [for awhile] to survive and shit, and I was going back and forth between Pittsburgh, Ohio, and New York.” Poverty in New York was taking its toll on his mother, RZA recounts. So she relocated with the family to Steubenville, Ohio, where his brothers and sisters lived with his stepdad. RZA was already on his own by this time, but he and Ghostface and ODB kept an apartment in the projects in Steubenville. This is when RZA was cutting his teeth in production, accumulating more gear and learning to use it. Already versed in the SP1200, RZA soon discovered the Ensoniq EPS keyboard and then the ASR-10.

“That was the Wu foundation,” he says of the EPS and ASR-10. “We started making a lot more demos, just the three of us in Ohio. Then in 1992, we moved back to New York, got with the rest of our [Brownsville] crew that we grew up with. Then the Wu-Tang style was born.”

Hip-Hop & Beyond
“What keeps me interested now is the power of a musician,” says RZA. “Before, especially the style of music on Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), I had no musical knowledge of what I was doing. I just had sound and DJ rhythm–cuttin’ up this and puttin’ a scratch here and takin’ a break there. Now, what keeps me interested in [production] is that I know all the DJ techniques but now I’m [also] a musician.”

RZA’s experience and background in music theory has become evident in his work. Take the much-hyped Beatles interpolation, “The Heart Gently Weeps,” from 8 Diagrams. The production is polished, sophisticated, even melodic–worlds apart from the raw aesthetic RZA captured on 36 Chambers. Raekwon’s and Ghostface’s opening verses on the track still evoke the classic Wu-Tang vocal cadence, but the backdrop has changed dramatically. Maybe it’s here that the creative rift is most striking. RZA views his production as an evolutionary process, whether it’s a film composition or the latest Wu-Tang album. But perhaps the most vocal dissenters in his crew–Raekwon and Ghostface–believe the Clan should remain true to its original vision. It’s a crossroads that so many musical collaborators have faced. And while all the remaining Wu members are legendary MCs, RZA is the only one who seems intent on finding something greater than what hip-hop can offer.

“When you [listen] to the new Bobby Digital album, you hear this hip-hop sound but it also seems elevated,” RZA explains. “You hear live guitar, guitar solos coming in at the end, different things that I incorporated into my production that I probably wouldn’t’a did years ago. Then I wasn’t a musician. I didn’t understand the progression of music and how it should be. I actually was against the progression of music. And now it’s like, man, sometimes I be making some real unique-sounding shit. Whether the world hears it or not, I know that when I be in my crib sometimes I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’”

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