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Not Going on Hiatus, But Getting Close…

So if you’ve noticed, I haven’t been posting much on this blog, and personally I’m at the point where I was about the turn the lights off this thing for good, (a la shut down the studio, “Puffy Style”). It’s not that I don’t like the site, because I love The Couch Sessions but a lot of things have to be fixed before I move forward.

First off my job has taken up all of allowable free time. I’m occupied every day with the legal hustle, while most people I know in “the industry” are still in bed. And maybe this is a sign of me getting old, but after work I would rather come home and watch ESPN HD with a cold beer then try to venture out to U Street to catch a show. Not saying that your show sucks, but getting out there on a weeknight and then trying to make it to work at 8:30 AM just isn’t hittin’ it anymore. Come up to NYC or Philly on a Tuesday? Naw man, can’t do it. And I know a bunch of people have told me to quit my job and focus on the music thing, but seriously that ish is downright impossible considering my financial sitation. How else can I live the “rock star” lifestyle?

Also, there is a lot of stuff going on with the site on the back end that I can’t really talk about, but is surely taking its toll on how I run things around here. It’s not beef or anything like that, just technical stuff with my hosting company, Google, Wordpress, and all of the above that is constraining this site from reaching the maximum amount of viewers. And no, the podcasts aren’t up yet. In turn, I’ve had to put all of my other ideas on hold (record company, the documentary thing, etc) until I get these issues with the site fixed.

And lastly, I can’t get down with this so-called hip-hop music these days. I’m listening to the new UGK album for review and although its a decent album, I just can’t get down with the cliched bitch talk, gun talk, pimp talk, etc. Granted, I’m reviewing Common’s Finding Forever, and I find it cliched for different reasons. All I’m trying to say is that there is a highly probable chance that I don’t like your favorite rapper (cough, Lil ‘Wayne) or your favorite hipster starlet (cough, M.I.A., cough) but the most popular blogs dry hump both. And since I much rather write about artists that most people never heard of, I will never the the shine that most bloggers get even though I’ve been in this game for almost 4 years. No disrespect to any other blogger, because trust me I read most every hip-hop blog you can name on a regular basis, but I’m trying to survive as a Black music blogger who tries to blog outside the realm of what is considered popular Black culture, and its not an easy thing.

So right now, I’m not going the shut anything down and I don’t know if I really want to go on a true hiatus. I’m still going to post, and I know Rome will hold things down. Basically, I see this site as Season 6 of 24: a venerable and popular show gets stale in its 6th season, and the producers have to go back to the drawing board to get things back on track for season 7. And that’s what I”m doing. Going back to the drawing board so I can ensure people that I’m putting out a quality product, on my terms and hopefully making money in the process.

Sorry for the rant, but let me assure you that big things are coming.

-Stone

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All of My Podcasts Deleted :(

Like the title says, my wack ass hosing company decided to delete ALL of my podcasts this week and never gave me an option to save them. In addition, my computer crashed so I don’t even know if I have all of my podcasts backed up yet.

So of course this means that the Podcasts are gonna be offline for a while, and since I’m headed out of town this week I don’t know WHEN they will be back up. Most of them might be DOA (like the Anthony David one), but if anybody has the J*Davey or Camp Lo podcasts saved can y’all send it to me? Anyone who does will get a free CD.

————————————————————–

Much thanks people! As of 3:35 PM I have 4 copies of the J*Davey Podcast, so its safe to say that its backed up!

Does anybody have the Sharon Jones of Camp Lo Podcasts??? I’m trying to get as many of the “interview” podcasts back as I can. Remember…whoever sends me a podcast gets a FREE PROMO CD!

BTW, the files are prob. gonna be too large to send so please use YouSendIt, sendspace, etc and hit me up at articleonline@gmail.com. THX!

4:13 Update

One of my friends came through with a goldmine of Podcasts and it looks like the crisis is averted. Here’s what I have so far:

Head Roc
J* Davey
Asamov
Sharon Jones
Summer Sounds
DJ Witnes Mix
017
021
022

This day is mad crazy, and I’m going to be out of town starting tomorrow, so I won’t be able to update them until next Wednesday at the latest. Good looks to everybody who came through!

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Hip-Hop

Whoops..

Of course, everything falls to sh*t when I go out of town. I don’t know what exactly went down with the site over the weekend, but somehow the MySQL Database got all messed up sometime in the past few days. Anyway, everything is back to normal now and the lovely lady on the other end of the line at Tech Support told me that it will never happen again. I’m holdin’ her to that.

Seems like a couple of y’all had a time trying to find the Pharrell post. My bad. Hopefully this will make it up to you:

Kool Herc - Notorious BIG Blends and remixes Side A
Kool Herc - Notorious BIG Blends and remixes Side B

PLEASE right click and “save as.” Tracks from FiftyOne FiftyOne.

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Moved to Wordpress

I was gonna make this a surprise, but I wanted to give y’all some warning in case this blog gets completely f’ed up over the next few days. I’ve been with Movable Type for almost 5 years now, but I’m getting frustrated with the comment spam and their nerve to charge a dude $70 for support.

As of now, if you’re subscripted to the email list or the RSS feed, <strong>you should not have to change anything</strong>. If you link to the main page directly, you might have to change your bookmark but I’ll let you know once everything is set up.

Also, if you have a blog, you should defiantly check out WordPress. Its a huge step up from MovableType.

Update: I still gotta tweak some things, but everything was moved over last night. Most links should redirect to the new Wordpress site, and the RSS/Email feed should not be affected. Leave a comment if you have any issues.

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Where In Washington D.C…..

So I’ve lived in D.C. for 3 years now, and while I have been to the hoodest of hoods for work and the preppies/squarest/fake hipsterest spots to kick it, I’m still in search of many things that are unique to D.C. Therefore Couch Sessions readers speak on it:

Where is the best grocery store?

Where/Who is the best butcher?

Where is the best theater?

Where is the best mexican food?

More questions after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry »

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The Real Real Talk

You can file this under any of the following: info, game, thug motivation, reason to get off the couch and get on the turntables/mic/mpc/comp, etc.

Killer Mike speaks on the music industry and his grind so damn serious. I mean I’m not even trying to cloud the post w/a bunch of bs, just click the link and watch the youtube videos. Then go hustle/create/spin/do u thing.

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It’s Messed Up, I know

This site has been through hell and back.

On Monday, my Movable Type installation crashed.

On Tuesday, the computer with the backup Movable Type files crashed.

On Wednesday, I still couldn’t figure out what the hell happened to the site. But since Surfspeedy was messin’ up, I decided to switch webhosts and reinstall movable type. The site is still up, but people are starting to get suspicious. Get two emails from people who can’t post comments to the site.

On Friday, switched web hosts but new webhosts messes up with the domain registration.

Saturday/Sunday: The Couch Sessions goes dark. Me and my new web host don’t start off on good terms.

Monday: Another arguement with web host. Threaten street justice. Problem fixed.

I’m still trying to get everything back in order. I figured out how to transfer all of the posts and comments from the old MySQL database, but trackbacks are gone. Also, Authors and categories didn’t come over properly, so I have to manually fix them in the database.

Things should be back up and running sometime today.

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Getting My Beach On…

(image from Rome’s Myspace Comment)

I’m gonna be, as they say, “out of pocket” for the weekend getting my beach on in South Cackalack. Comments won’tbe approved until I get back on Monday. Until then, check the new Podcast, and the Leela James Contest.

Peace,
-S

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the Couch Sessions

It's the holiday season once again, and we at the Couch Sessions are doing our own things. Stone's in Alabama with his fam. I'm movin' back down to DC from mASSachusetts. As far as our other writers, I'm sure they're having a busy holiday as well. So all in all, we're pretty busy. Which may be part of the reason why we aren't gonna be posting as much this weekend.

And hopefully, y'all are having a good holiday too. So from all of us here at the Couch Sessions, we wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Kwanza and a Happy New Year to all.

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Writer Bios

Stone - Music has always ruled my life. I remember growing in in a small town in Alabama listening to everything from Diana Ross to The Doors. My father had a really extensive music collection.

Coincidentally, my father also barred me from listening to rap music until I was around 15 years old. However, during that time, I listened to a lot of Memphis and Motown recordings. I would tell people in elementary school about Booker T & the MG's and other Stax recording artists. And I’ll just get blank stares.

High school was interesting. I would make the 35 minute ride from my all black town to my all white high school every weekday. Of course, in my high school alternative music came with the territory. So I was exposed to a lot of britpop such as Radiohead, Oasis, and The Prodigy in addition to such bands as Soul Coughing and Geggy Tah. And yes, in the middle of redneck Alabama, there was a huge drum and bass/trip-hop scene as well.

Of course, I kept things equal on the hip hop end. Groups like Outkast, Blackstreet, Lil' John (from back in the day), Kilo, the 69Boyz, The Roots, Roni Size, made constant appearances on my CD Player.

And yes, I was a Biggie fan from day one.

My Soul revival came during my first year of college when I was exposed to Baltimore club and DC go-go. In addition, my ex-girlfriend turned me onto Erykah Badu and D'Angelo. Soul greats like Curtis Mayfield and Gil Scott Heron were big in college as well.

The evolution of my soul experience came when I lived in London. I would go to the weekly hip hop parties held in the outlying areas and I was exposed to so much new, interesting, music that I didn???t know what to do with myself. Living in London has turned me into the man that you see today. A Soul Rebel. A true seeker of underground music.

Miss Hipstah - Miss Hipstah's love for music started when her mother listened to classical music records while pregnant with her. She was told that she danced in the womb. Some of her first cassette tapes were Madonna's “Like A Prayer”, Technotronic “Pump Up The Volume”, and Duice's “Dazzey Duks” and her first CD was REM's “Monster”. That was a really long time ago and since then her music tastes have definitely changed (though she still loves Madonna).

When she is not listening to, talking about or writing on music, she
can be found studying photography and cultural studies up in
Massachusetts. Dividing her time between there, New York and
Washington DC, Miss Hipstah, a self-proclaimed “cool hunter”, is
always on the lookout for the next big thing, whether it is in music,
fashion or art. Her own art has been shown in various salon shows, the
International Center of Photography, and in Circa 2004, a collection
of young up and coming artists. She dreams of one day opening a
gallery, starting a magazine, being on the Daily Show and becoming a
boxer.

Divynthought - I'm a native of Washington and an inspiring music journalist. The most accurate way I could describe myself is to say that I'm an old soul. Sometimes I think my spirit was imported here from another time because of how our “oldies” speak to me. And this is how I know. When I was in kindergarten, I remember my favorite artist was KoKo Taylor, a raunchy blues singer from Memphis. That real, soulful music was calling to me even then.

In Philly, I've really fallen in love with the hip-hop/soul scene.
It's one of the reasons I decided to go to school there. I've met
(and written about) some awesome independent artists, whose work I
really believe in, like United Soul, Lady Alma, Anthony David, and
Kurt Chambers. They remind me of the sound I grew up listening to.

I'm also an amateur 35mm photographer and I dabble in digital
photography as well. There's a short collection of my photographs on
the website.

As far as my music is concerned, I like to keep the rotation in
constant motion. This week I've played Dwele, Sade, Joi, Bobby
Valentino, Ludacris, Rick James, Common, Cee Lo, and a mixtape of my favorite Motown hits.

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