So let me start off by saying this was one of the longest days in my life as I started off earlier in the day / evening at the N.E.R.D / Common concert at the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park and then I had to quickly get my butt out of the Stanley Park area, which wasn’t too bad actually and get to the Commodore Ballroom where the CSS concert was being held. Huge thanks to the crew at Sealed with a Kiss Promotions for allowing us to attend the show and take photos, check out their website for upcoming shows, www.sealedwithakisspresents.com. Now you all know my mind frame as I entered the show, exhausted. I didn’t get a chance to catch any of the openers.

First things first I had to find a good spot for taking photos, which I have to admit I didn’t get that many great shots, but worth checking out nonetheless. The lights came down, the crowd in anticipation started cheering louder and erupted as members of the band came out and got setup on their instruments. The set started off with “Jager Yoga” and goddamn it kicked my ass. Immediately woke me up from my exhausted state and had me wildin’ out. Lovefoxxx was insanely energetic and there was no way that that wasn’t going to transfer to the audience, so in return everybody else wilded out. Gotta say though that outfit choice of hers was f’in awesome, a leotard, sexy that’s all I can say. Fast forward to the third song “This Month, Day 10”, the crowd went crazy again as soon as the melody and drum line dropped. Again Lovefoxxx just killed it, pouring all of her energy into the song. The crowd was singing and dancing along with every hook and lyric.

There was definite interaction between her and the crowd and she even made note that this was the third time they were in Vancouver, having performed previously at Celebrities and Richards on Richards. Offering shots of tequila to the crowd as well, pretty fantastic.

Then the infectious jam “Move” came on and my ass hit the roof. I love this jam and I love the recently discovered Cut Copy remix as well, which is on Killahbeez.com. The drum line, melody and hook, fuck it. Everything about this song just makes you want to, well get up and “Move” and the video for this is pretty hilarious and quite creative. After this song ended there was a bit of a break as a prop was being brought out onto the stage. Whatever it was, it was under a black curtain and soon to be revealed. A few moments go by and Lovefoxxx pulls off the curtain to reveal a huge Britney Spears microphone stand, I was drinking redbull and it all ended up coming out my nose at this point. It was pretty hilarious to say the least, check out the pictures to see it. This lead into the song “Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex”, which the mainstream folks will remember it for being in the Apple iTouch commercial, but the crowd ate this song up, myself included. I love it when they break into the Portuguese rhymes, that shit is hot. The set seemingly ended with “Let’s Reggae All Night”, and the band left the stage. There was about 2 – 5 mins of chanting from the crowd as we clearly wanted more and more is what they ended up giving us as they came back out on stage and did another three songs before ending the night off with their jam “Alala”.

Overall, great concert and it seriously woke my ass up and out of my slight coma and kept me partying the whole time. Great job on Sealed with a Kiss’s part for bringing in another solid act and at a great venue. CSS killed it playing a good mixture of old and new material and great energy on their part in keeping the crowd amped from beginning to the end. Check out the rest of the pictures on our Flickr page.

Complete set list here (big up to my home girl Mae Lynn for lookin’ out):

Jager Yoga
Meeting Paris Hilton
This Month, Day 10
Left Behind
Off the Hook
Rat is Dead (Rage)
Move
Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex
Alcohol
Let’s Reggae All Night
Air Painter
Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death from Above
Alala

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A few of us Killahbeez heads were invited by Livenation to check out the N.E.R.D. and Common concert, which is dubbed as “Seeing The Invincible Sounds of Summer Tour”. The tour name combines both N.E.R.D.’s album name, Seeing Sounds, along with Common’s upcoming album, The Invincible Summer. The tour stop in Vancouver was the 5th stop for these guys with 13 additional dates left, so be sure to check out www.livenation.com for information on the tour.

The night started off with one of Canada’s best DJs and we’ve posted about homeboy a few times here on Killahbeez, DJ Pump. He warmed the crowd up with some classic hip hop, some new joints like “Jockin’ Jay-Z”, “Swagger Like Us” as well as educating the crowd with samples like Aretha Franklin’s “One Step Ahead” and showing the crowd where “A Millie” really came from. I’ve said this numerous times, but he’s truly one of the most versatile DJs I’ve heard in a minute and can rock any kind of party. Check out his MySpace page for a list of upcoming shows, www.myspace.com/djpump.

Now onto N.E.R.D. these dudes hit the stage around 7pm, when they came out the crowd went bananas and Pharrell acknowledged the cheers by going crazy himself and jumping straight into “Anti Matter”, which easily is one of my favorite tracks off of the latest album, Seeing Sounds. The guitar riffs and drums for the track sounded pretty damn fantastic in the venue and had me head bobbin’, nearly forgetting that I was there to take photos. So dope it had your boy losing focus for a second. A little disappointment though started to set in as I noticed that Chad Hugo wasn’t there and this marks the third straight time (he wasn’t at the Glow In the Dark and Pemberton Festival) that he wasn’t here, which could possibly mean he has difficulties coming across the Canadian border. It was up to Pharrell and fellow member Shae to hold things down and that they did as they kept their frenetic pace throughout the set. Going from “Anti Matter” to “Brain” to “Killjoy”. As one of my friends in attendance said, “I love how Pharrell performs throwing his arms wildly and just rockin’ out his shit”.

There was lot of interaction between the crowd and Pharrell, at one point Pharrell pulls up a kid onto the stage and it was clearly visible that the kid was in shock that he was up on stage with N.E.R.D., pretty cool moment. The set continued with “Maybe” followed by “Sooner or Later”, “You Know What”, “Rockstar”. At this point the crowd seems to be mellowing out, not so much the fans in the front as they were still wildin’, but the peoples in the back and side of the park were definitely on the mellower side. This lead to Pharrell telling the crowd “We’re here to lose our muthafucking minds, otherwise we’re wasting our time. If you’re too cool then get the fuck out”. I thought that was hilarious and he got a good laugh out of the crowd as well. N.E.R.D. went on to finish their set with “Spaz”, “Lapdance” and “Everyone Nose”. But wait they still weren’t done, they then went into a medley of tracks such as “Drop It Like Its Hot”, P’s verse of course, “She Wants to Move” and then dropping a sick live remix by playing The White Stripes “Seven Nation Army”, while both Shae and Pharrell did their verses for “Everyone Nose”.

I have the official set list that was taped to the stage, but N.E.R.D., definitely changed it up as a few of the songs were moved around and the medley they had originally planned seemed to have completely changed last second.

Next up, Common.

There were some worried faces amongst the crowd as word had gotten out that there was a hard curfew time of 10pm for the park and the stage setup time for Common was unexpectedly long. But as the clock hit shortly after 9pm, the show began with an opening skit. The stage itself was setup as a club, with a bar, along with stools, dj booth, etc. Enter DJ Dummy and the rest of the band members, shortly thereafter Common busts his way onto the stage and starts the show off with “Announcement”, which is the second single from the upcoming album, The Invincible Sound, and straight into another new song called “Inhale”. Common stops for a second for another quick skit, it was clear he wasn’t here to just rap for us; he was here to entertain the fans. As the skit ended it lead into the song “Go” which quickly turned into the track “Sex For Sugar”, another new track off of the upcoming album. At this point I was relief to hear some of these new tracks as I have to admit I was a bit worried that his whole upcoming album would follow the path of “U.M.C”, which I’m definitely not a fan of and a lot of Common fans can agree that that jam is not one of his best. As “Sex For Sugar” ended he went into another skit, in total there were 4 skits for the whole show. He had also pulled a lucky female audience member up onto the stage. He would do another new song, “Punch Love”, before going into “Come Close” and one of my favorite hip-hop songs ever, “I Used To Love H.E.R.”

I knew the aforementioned song, “U.M.C (Universal Mind Control)”, would eventually be played and wasn’t really looking forward to it, but you know what. Common killed it, the live drum tracks on this song was sick, had me head bobbin’ for sure and that wasn’t expected so that had me amped.

Common did a great job at keeping the energy going during his set, considering he was on his own for the most part, except for a few tracks where Pharrell came out to perform along side Common. As some may know Kanye West isn’t producing the majority of Common’s upcoming album as he did on Common’s previous work. Pharrell has taken over the majority of production duties on this new album, hence the different sound.

He would go through an abundance of tracks such as Talib Kweli’s “Get ‘Em High” (his verse), “Drive Me Wild”, “I Want You”, “Be”, “Make My Day”, “The Food”, “The People”, “The Corners”, “The Light” and finishing off with a new song “Gladiator”.

But something crazy happened in between the tracks “The Corners” and “The Light” and for sure any true hip-hop head would have picked it up right away. The band behind Common started playing one of the most recognizable beat in hip-hop and Common continued the process by doing the first verse and that’s when I had a huge smile on my face. He was doing Nas’s song “NY State of Mind” and customized it for Vancouver, by replacing “NY” with “BC”, very impressive indeed.

I have to say this was a great hip-hop concert and the outdoor venue, Malkin Bowl, was excellent in terms of sound and thankfully the Vancouver weather held-up and it was sunny the whole day. I actually have never seen either Common or N.E.R.D. live before and definitely have to say that both impressed me. I had high expectations for Common as I have grown up listening to all of his stuff, you know before he dropped the “Sense” from his name. So if this tour rolls through your city I definitely have to recommend that you go and check it out.

Here are the remaining tour dates:

September 18 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox SoDo
September 19 - Eugene, OR @ Cuthbert Amphitheater
September 20 - Berkeley, CA @ Berkeley Community Theatre
September 21 - Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
September 23 - Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
September 27 - Chicago, IL @ House Of Blues
September 29 - Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus
October 1 - Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
October 2 - Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory
October 4 - New York, NY @ Roseland Ballroom
October 8 - Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
October 9 - Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Cafe
October 10 - Miami Beach, FL @ Fillmore

Hit up Livenation for more information on tickets, venues and dates: www.livenation.com

Rest of the pictures can be found on our Flickr page. If you liked this review, please remember to vote for me here.

Fresh from the Common / N.E.R.D. concert, look for an upcoming review shortly, I heard a song that I haven’t heard in a minute. The artist Common, back then known as Common Sense, the song “I Used To Love H.E.R.”. The song was originally released back in 1994 on the album Resurrection and became one of Common’s most well known songs and produced by No I.D.

The song itself is well known as a bittersweet ode to hip-hop and uses crazy metaphors comparing a woman to hip-hop. H.E.R. stands for “Hip Hop in its Essence and Real”, but it has been thought that it could stand for “Hearing Every Rhyme”.

This song was also the catalyst in which a beef was sparked between Ice Cube and Common, as it criticized the direction that hip-hop music was taking in the mid 90’s and how it moved away from conscious and Afrocentric rap to a more grittier and violent lyrics. The beef between the two was short-lived as it was subsequently squashed in a sit-down with Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Check these lines:

I might’ve failed to mention that the shit was creative
But once the man got you well he altered the native
Told her if she got an energetic gimmick
That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy
Now I see her in commercials, shes universal
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle
Now she be in the burbs lickin rock and dressin hip
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city
Talkin about poppin glocks servin rocks and hittin switches
Now shes a gangsta rollin with gangsta bitches
Always smokin blunts and gettin drunk

The whole song is deep overall and you can find a lot of hidden meanings and possible jabs at other artists that were coming out during that time frame. But this song right here, is easily one of my favorites from the man now known as Common.

Starting September 9th Live Nation will be presenting both Common and N.E.R.D as they will be touring through North America with 14 dates currently scheduled. N.E.R.D will be out promoting their latest album Seeing Sounds, while Common will be promoting his upcoming album Invincible Summer. So far two tracks from this album are available for purchase from iTunes: “Announcement” & “Universal Mind Control”, both of which involve Pharrel doing the production and/or lending vocals. To check out all tour stops and dates check out www.livenation.com.

Continuing to post all the new tracks. First up is Lykke Li and a remix of her song “Little Bit” by Loving Hand, definitely some hotness here. Also don’t forget her album has finally hit stateside, so be sure to cop that. After that we got Bloc Party’s new song “Trojan Horse” off of their album Intimacy, which has a release date of October, but is being officially digitally released on the 21st of August, this is to help combat piracy. We also have three sick remixes, Ladyhawke’s “Dusk Till Dawn” gets remixed by Linus Loves and Vinyl Man & Wax Boy kill it with the “Everyone Nose” and finally Yelle’s latest single “Ce Jeu” gets remixed as well.

Lykke Li “Little Bit” Loving Hand Remix

Bloc Party “Trojan Horse”

Ladyhawke “Dusk Till Dawn” Linus Loves Remix

N.E.R.D. “Everyone Nose” Vinyl Man & Wax Boy LA Coke Bars Remix

Yelle “Ce Jeu” Cool Kids Can’t Die Remix

Craaaaazy! New video for N.E.R.D, as they shot a video for the remix of “Everyone Nose”, which also features the Pusha T from the Clipse, Lupe Fiasco and Kanye West, both of which along with Pharrell are part of the rumored CRS group. Anyways this isn’t a shitty quality you’re seeing, it actually has an 8-bit video game type graphic treatment all over it. Anyways I thought Kanye’s verse was straight and Pusha T killed it, that’s all I’m sayin’.

These caps are new colorways of 2 Vancity Original New Era favorites. The cardinal blue with purple and white Vancity cap is a ltd edition colorway and also comes in classic white with red and black and black with red and white with the 604 hit on the back. These caps mark the end of an era as New Era will no longer allow area codes due to various law suits incurred in the US regarding ownership of area codes and supposed gang affiliations. The 604 has been an integral part of all Vancity Original designs and will be missed. The black and grey with red accents VC Vancity Original cap was produced to coincide with the release of the Jordan Collezione 19/4 pack and is a must have for anyone with the OG J4’s and the forrest/green VC cap is a new colorway sported recently at the Pemberton Music Festival by N•E•R•D member Shae. Look out for many more New Era designs and colorways and matching tees from Vancity Original this summer.

Hit the jump below for more images of the different colorways.

Dipt
www.getdipt.com
(604) 669-9990
819 Hornby Street, Vancouver, BC

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Thursday, July 24 – Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver

Pittsburgh, Pa., DJ Gregg Gillis, better known as Girl Talk, brought the party to the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver on Thursday, July 24. The highly-anticipated event was sold out weeks in advance, and it was thanks to our friends over at Sealed with a Kiss that two of us ‘Beez got in.

A long line was formed outside the venue by 10 p.m., and inside, openers Twin Crystals were makin’ a whole lotta racket that the crowd flooding in didn’t seem to be feelin’. I don’t mean to be a hater, but the thrash guitar, almost screamo sounds of Twin Crystals just didn’t seem to be a good lead up to the pop/ hip-hop/ electro vibe of Girl Talk. Luckily, after the band’s question, “So, do you guys want to hear another song?” was met with a significant amount of boos, Twin Crystals left the stage, and a local DJ spun some cool and relaxed reggae beats that got the hipsters out onto the dance floor.

Girl Talk set up promptly. Nothing fancy – just his basic DJ equipment on a single table, and started the show at 11 p.m. The crowd went absolutely wild as he shouted, “What’s up, Vancouver? So glad so many of you came out on a Thursday!” and threw on T.I.’s “What You Know About That.”

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