DEFINITION OF COOL: MAYER HAWTHORNE

I’ve been looping his thirteen tracked, pimpsauced, so boss debut album ‘A Strange Arrangement’ for over a year now and I’ve been snagging up Mayer’s table scraps, 2010’s bootlegged ‘No Strings’ and yesterday’s ‘Mr. Blue Sky’, ever since. While he’s been hustling these vintage sounds for a minute, it’s not the springboard of his “geek is the new cool” flyness. When I throwback to when I first upped the volume on ‘Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out’ I found a video of him called “Dusty Fingers” about him diggin for 45’s. Mayne that video - W. Allen once wrote “That’s how you get better, playing with a stronger player.” If you could only spin some Stax, Chess, and Mowtown records with this cat and talk about Otis, Rufus Thomas, The Moonglows, mix in some David Ruffin, the Surpremes, Smokey Robinson… I’ll tell you, sitting with an hombre like Mayer Hawthorne and talking soul music, not only would you learn how to appreciate music more, you’d walk away a better bloke. Dude is the freakin coolest cat on the planet. No joke.

Mayer Hawthorne’s ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ download

THE BROTHERS OF CHICO DUSTY

It’s no secret that my wiener gets girth from listening to The Black Keys. Not that I would blow them or anything, but if their sound was phallic in some magical way, yeah I’d probably go down on it and totally tap that. That being said I’d like to take the time to apologize to the people who I love and respect in my family, if you’re reading this. Moving on, The Brothers of Chico Dusty was masterfully spliced together by a cat hailing from Nashville dubbed Wick-It The Instigator and his crew of six DJ’s deep. After mixing the Black Keys’ first major track to ever have serious radio play “Tighten Up” off of their album called Brothers and Big Boi’s track “Shutterbug” snagged off of his solo LP Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty, needless to say, dude got some serious street cred. So “The Brothers of Chico Dusty was obviously the next step.” Retorted the early to the party Wick-It. Well played sir. Well played indeed.

Now one would say, “Of course you’d dig the tracks Vinnie, their injected with rugged rock sound that is the Black Keys.” And I would come back with the inevitable and explicitly lucid “Duh.” But it has opened up an attentive ear to an entirely new sound and it’s got me rumbling over and over “I got a back-up plan to my back-up plan, to back-up my back-up plan” thanks to “Mashville’s” Wick-It crew, Big Boi and The Black Keys. Wicked cool, D.O.C. fo sho.

Listen and download here:

http://mashville.bandcamp.com/album/the-brothers-of-chico-dusty

DEFINITION OF COOL: TRUE GRIT

I follow movies like people follow sports teams. They know who the players, the coaches, and what the stats are and I in turn know the actors, screenwriters and directors. I will even go see a flick just because someone specific produced the film and possibly because a cinematographer shot the film. So this is to say I’m a movie super freak. This year I’ve seen a plethora of films and none have I anticipated as much as I am the Coen Brothers’ new film “True Grit.” It was late last week, we’re probably talking about three in the morning, and I was pursuing the trailers on apple as I frequently do. I hadn’t read anything about Jeff Bridges working on a new film since following up Crazy Heart with Tron:Legacy. But the first thing that caught my attention was the simple poster for True Grit that just said the title and “a new film by the Coen Brothers.” So I had to check it out. But then I read that Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Barry Pepper, who I don’t see enough of, were apart of the film and I had no choice but to watch this trailer. 

It opens with Bridges as Marshal Cogburn talking with Mattie Ross, played by newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, pushing Cogburn to help her avenge her fathers death. Then the killer for me was when Damon pops up and smugly, with his Matthew Mcconaughey impression, says “I’m a Texas Ranger.” And that about did if for me. But then in the middle to intensify the drama, as trailers do, Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” pounds in the background. Pardon the expression, but get a broner just writing about it. This is going to be a great film. I know it. It’s not a feeling or a prediction, it’s a fact. The film was an adaptation of a John Wayne film and with all the remakes happening over the past decade you just can’t go wrong with great material and utilizing the right talent for those roles. Not to mention Roger Deakins as the films cinematographer. So you can count on the film looking beautiful.

But I don’t want to spoil it, check out the bag of cool that is the True Grit trailer and enjoy because this, for me, is a great Christmas present. 

DEFINITION OF COOL: BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

I could draw out the fact that this movie is cool as shit. But if you haven’t seen this movie, I feel sorry for you and no amount of words will truly say what John Carpenters action, fantasy, grind house flick means to me or how glorious it really is. So go out and rent it even if, especially if you’ve already seen it and let Jack Burton, Gracie Law, Wang Chi, Lo Pan and the Three Storms show you a great time. Check back with me for a private screening I’ll have in Long Beach Mid November. And I’ll leave you with this: Ol’ Jack always says… 

Definition Of Cool

Here are few updates for this blog, for those who find it mildly amusing and take the time to check back in once in a while. One: I will be back to blog a day towards the end of this week. My time off after 30 Days of Awesome has come to an end. Two: Right out of high school I decided to start a magazine called “Definition” and every issue I wanted to have a feature article called “The Definition of Cool.” It became a monumental endeavor for a new dad, so I discontinued the concept until I figured I would have the time for it. Moreover, thanks to my new found outlet, this blog, I will write and post a “Definition of Cool” every Monday. Now let me clarify that “Definition of Cool” will be something that I find interesting and ultimately cool. So I don’t want people to be like “Why do you think you can define cool? Because your not.” And to those people I’d say “Fuckin Screw. This is Definition of Cool.”

DEFINITION OF COOL: THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS

Saturday night I went to see the California Honeydrops at the Piano Bar in Hollywood for the second time this year. And If you could find a way to describe how I acted while listening to them play live, one would equate it to how a school girl would have acted if The Beatles came to town in the 60’s. At one point during the show I looked to the right and to the left and I realized that I was surrounded by attractive young women. There were no dudes right up in front and not too many people who knew the lyrics as well as I did. This is not to say that I was the only die hard fan there, but I was the only heavy set, bearded dude who had no qualms about sining along to all the tunes these cats were howling at the crowd. I think even at one point I shocked Laura, the sweet gal who was selling their albums, when I knew a track from their covers album “B-Sides From the Blues Cave.” But that made the experience all the more cool because she occasionally would step into me and we’d sing in unison. 

Now let’s get right down to it, what makes these cats cool is they have a feel good sound that makes you want to jump, jive and wail. Being apart of their show is what pure joy feels like. And that’s just how they make you feel if you partake in the goodness, you are apart of their show. Now The Piano Bar maybe, fits about a hundred and fifty people inside this speakeasy-esque establishment and possibly about half or more were crowded around the the stage singing, dancing and letting the good times roll. It made me feel a bit more cool knowing that even though these dudes had been traveling all around the world lately, meeting tons of fans, they actually remembered me. But it’s not like I couldn’t blame them, I pester them about wanting to help them out in any possible way I can every chance I get. Maybe they’ll let me direct a music video for them one day. Maybe, who knows.  

A brilliant musician I know once equated to attending a great performance as going to church because it was just that good. Now I’m not particularly a religious man but I got to, not have to, but got to visit another one of their musical abbeys before they shake out to Poland for an Eastern European tour because yes, they are that cool.

THE CALIFORNIA HONEYDROPS LIVE