Culture Bully Gets a Makeover

Our brethren in mpls-music-blogging, Culture Bully, have just went live with a new and improved layout. Go check it out, it will be fun. Creator Chris DeLine is pictured.

Click here to peep the new digs.

Culture Bully undergoes mammoth 60-hour blogathon for charity

This week's "Tip of the Hat" definitely goes to Culture Bully, who are undergoing a 60-hour blogathon as a fundraising campaign to support Donors Choose, an organization that allows teachers to propose a classroom project which will then be brought to life by charitable donations. Check it out.

CultureBully.com is teaming with DonorsChoose.org for a three day fundraising campaign supporting music development and literacy within local Twin Cities schools. Beginning with this post Culture Bully will be posting exclusive content at least once an hour, every hour for the next 60 HOURS!

With the support of over 50 local and national musicians these posts will include exclusive commentaries by the likes of Josh Grier of Tapes ‘n Tapes, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, YouTube legend Tay Zonday, Kid Dakota, Maria Isa, Kristoff Krane, M.anifest and many, many more!

So far, CB has come up with some doozies of exclusives, including a live Love in October performance:


Love in October "Like Nothing Ever Happened" (Live @ Dunn Bros) from Culture Bully on Vimeo.

An essay from new MFR favorite Jeremy Messersmith about the importance of music education in his life:

I find it hard to believe that I could make the music I write now without the music education I got as a child. Even though I don’t play trumpet as much as I used to, the foundations of melody and ear training still come in handy. Music education was a big source of confidence for me as a child. I wasn’t exactly athletic or even that interesting, so music was one of the only things I was really good at!

There's much, much more here. Read and donate.

(Jonathan Graef)
jon@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com

New RZA (Feat. David Banner) - "Straight Up The Block"

Download: RZA - "Straight Up the Block"
Download: RZA - "You Can't Stop Me Now" (Feat. Inspectah Deck)

Not to be confused with Kidz In The Hall's "Drivin' Down The Block", "Straight Up The Block" is the new jam from Wu-Tang Clan's mastermind the RZA. The track is taken from his upcoming record Digi Snax, which is due for release on the 24th of July. In order to promote said release, Culture Bully and First Avenue are giving away a pair of tickets to the June 30th show that RZA and Stone Mecca are playing. Here are the details:

The contest (is) open to US residents only (sorry international friends!) - to enter simply leave a note in the comments section - maybe about how you’re cleaning your life up, or maybe about how you’re letting the randomness take over (don’t forget to enter your email address, which won’t be shown publicly, it’s so we can get in touch with you!). THREE winners will be chosen at random & the contest ends Thursday, June 26, 2008 so…if you see this post on Friday, June 27, 2008 and would like to enter…my friend, you are too late.

Leave a comment here. As stated, the contest ends on Thursday, June 26th, so get on it!

Digi Snax is out on July 24th.

RZA MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Delicious Venom Profiled By New York Times, Condemned By Right-Wing Douchebags, Defended By Culture Bully

Download: Delicious Venom - "Genocide in Laos"

This past week has been a great one, in terms of media exposure, for Hmong rapper and Minneapolis natives Delicious Venom. First off, the duo, and specifically Tou Saiko Lee, were the subjects of a video profile at the New York Times. The video explores, as you might imagine, how Lee reconciles his cultural ancestors--both in Laos and in Hip-hop--in today's society. Of course, that's just the jumping off point. It's very much worth watching, and you can do so here.

That said, not everyone is so enamored of Delicious Venom, or his efforts to use hip-hop in order to teach awareness, and have people "learn", about how societies and cultures different from their own function. Jason Lewis, a conservative commentator from the Twin Cities who has served as a substitute host for Rush Limbaugh and has written for the Wall Street Journal, denounced the PTA in South Washington County, for having Lee come in for a day and speak to the sixth graders about creating poetry and the benefits of self-expression.

About the PTA, Lewis said:

“Along with the school district in South Washington County: to hell with Shakespeare, to hell with Tennyson, to hell with science and math; we’re going to teach our sixth graders how to be hip hop emcees.”

Who wants to pitch in a few bucks so we can get Lewis a "Jump To Conclusions Mat", Office Space-style?

Lee, as well as Culture Bully writer Kyle Myhre, does a fantastic job of defending himself and his art, so much so that any other further commentary is superfluous. Read the article here.

Listen to "Genocide in Laos", which surely sounds like its about bitches, guns and hoes, and has nothing to do with this, at the top of the post.

Delicious Venom MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Culture Bully's Top Ten Videos of 2007

Culture Bully just posted their Top Ten Music Videos of 2007, it's a great collecion. Read it here.

(Ian Anderson)

Les Savy Fav Video - "Peggy Lee"

Les savy fav - patty lee
Uploaded by epb21

Saw this on Culture Bully and thought: "Ian!"

So here it is.

Click here to hear an MP3 of the song.

MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)