The Wize & La Base – LIVE!

This past Thursday I had the honour of performing live with La Base, an awesomely talented Band of Brothers from San Luis Potosi. The brothers run the local music school where I study and record and otherwise pass much of my time building with good people with awesome talent.

La Base & The Wise

I went to record on Thursday lunchtime (after I leave school in the morning I pass a few hours recording before heading to a Radio Station to give classes, then back to school) but the things weren’t there as they had been used to record a band competition this week. I spent the afternoon there anyway conversing about the meaning of life and playing the beautiful new guitar of my friend.

Jamming

That afternoon I dropped in at the other branch of the school which is next to my school, we were chatting about playing live and Cesar invited me to play with the group that evening in LOVE, a new bar run by the maestro de cantar en la escuela.  I was super honoured and got a fantastic energy, when I got home from work I headed up to the bar, we had a chat about what to play as we set up.

They opened the set and then I joined them on stage where we jammed for a few songs, me just following David on the drums and Eddie, Tato y Cesar jamming the guitar, keyboard and bass. We took a little break and we came back and  Got It Started with Community Initiative x Black Eyed Peas…the energy was awesome and it was so much fun to rap with that, Pitufo joined me on the mic to sing the hook and it went down a storm.

Eddie, Wise, David, Cesar, Tato

I am currently in the process of getting together a band and we will soon be playing live around the city, our first gig is waiting in the wings at showin’ us LOVE and this was a wonderful taster of the potential here. Muchisimos Gracias a La Base and I hope we get another chance to do this sometime, and here’s to many more fun times with this music.

Performing Everyday And Creating Evermore

The Inconvenient Truths Session

I realise that I have previously posted this song here on the blog but I have recently got hold of a whole bunch of old photographs including some from the making of this song and I thought it would be cool to catch a snapshot of the creative process. So, rewind selecta……..

Inconvenient Truths

Cat's Lair

Cat’s Lair, where Susie’s artwork hangs above the wheels of steel

Ingredients

One of the 4 “Collector’s Corners” (of this room! haha) 

Finishing Touches

Putting the finishing touches to the verses as the beat bangs.

TC In Position

Thundercat at the controls, Tao of Physics in hand…we’re coming into land!

The Booth

The Wise in his padded room.

Bey's Eye View

Strummin'

TC relaxing with the guitar, taking a break from the hard work (word to Justin! hahaha)

So there you have it, I’ll have some more of these on the way as I go through the old pics. In the meantime Thundercat and I are busy working on new projects, more info on those is also forthcoming…

Practice Every Aspect Creatively Excel

Mr. Shaodow

I want to take some time out from the direct goings on of the Community League to give some love to a member of our extended fam – Mr. Shaodow.

Shaodow and I met when we were both supporting Klashnekoff at The Coven in Oxford back in 2007, we were both pretty hyped to be on the bill and I took an immediate liking to him. We were at opposite ends of the bill - I had the first warm up as the doors opened and he was doing the graveyard shift after Klashnekoff – but Thundercat and I were glad we stuck around for some solid songs and some awesome kung-fu (we also not so secretely hoped to see Shaodow spazz out on the guy who kept trying to grab the mic!).

After that we hooked up together for a few shows as he was getting started out and everytime he gained a little and it was great to see. I was always thrilled by his kung-fu skills and he fielded many questions on the topic – what would happen if I sucker punched you right now? Have you ever gotten into a fight? What’s the deadliest move you have? – and I was always eager to egg on the displays interspersed through the set. We’ve passed a few beats and rhymes back and forth over the this time and I am hopeful that we will get a collaboration together someday but in the meantime I am enjoying the show.

Since those days his star has kept rising through hard work and determination and these are exciting times. I am not the only one celebrating a new video relase , in fact Mr. Shaodow has 2 new videos for us to enjoy, the first is, in a word, JOKZ…it’s the new single R U Stoopid!?!:

The next is a very special video because it features our very good friends SMILEX with whom we have shared the stage in the past (and they also gave us our start at The Wheatsheaf many years ago!). This is the remix for Look Out, There’s A Black Man Coming and when you purchase it from itunes all of the proceeds go to Love Music, Hate Racism:

Finally Shaodow leaves The Shire and treads the hallowed ground of Tim Westwood’s studio:

That’s all for the now but do go and check out Mr. Shaodow’s music and always keep it Community.

PEACE