By Mawuse Ziegbe

The chance for the absurd is the reason droves of misfits migrate from middle America to Manhattan. So, I’m sure flaming fashionistas from Peoria would have been reveling at Fischerspooner’s show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The arty, dance duo recently released their third album, Entertainment, a pulsing electronic epic that the group matched with an equally grand stage show. Be-wigged dancers slid in and out of jumpsuits, tutus and other fabric concoctions to the militaristic throb of songs like “The Best Revenge.” Even Madonna (the most famous ex-Midwesternite) braved outer-borough traffic, studiously watching the dancers flex to perfectly synced rehearsal footage. Easily the best show I’ve seen in ages.

Toronto collective Keys N Krates also brought an intense stage show to Williamsburg taking over the back room at Public Assembly. After a heartbreakingly terrible show by Planet Rump (I thought I was watching a Mad TV sketch) Keys N Krates knocked out live remixes of classic jammy jams. With a DJ, drums, bass, and guitar, the band reinterpreted gems like Mos Def’s “Ms. Fat Booty” and A Tribe Called Quest’s “Check The Rhime,” often banging out a riff of the song’s obscure sample. They also shook up a downtempo version of Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” with frisky syncopation and throwback scratching.

The king of livening up any flaccid track with murderous scratching is DJ Premier. At a recent listening session for Queens artist Blaq Poet he vowed to bring back the coarse, wiry beats of yesteryear. Blaq Poet’s latest album The Blaqprint is a cacophony of cagey rhythms and heavy lyrics coursing with the gritty, boot-stomping, ashy-knuckle allure of hip hop artists like M.O.P. and Mobb Deep. I mean, I love me some Soulja Boy, but I kinda miss when rappers used the word “glock” and post-apocalyptic decay seemed to influence the set design of all hip hop videos.

At least when it comes to real hip hop ish, we have Little Boots! Okay, I was making funny. But she did make a genius piano cover of Kid Cudi’s “Day N Nite” and has been enchanting fans with YouTube covers of songs by Cyndi Lauper and Lightspeed Champion often shot from the comfort of her bedroom. Already topping charts in her native UK, she had a rapturous public waiting at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge. However, her live show was sadly upstaged by her outsize buzz and rollicking openers, Heartsrevolution. A barefoot drummer pounding inhuman BPMs, a wailing frontwoman swilling from a bottle of Jack the size of her head, and shimmery dance rhythms of rave-like proportions preemptively kicked Little Boots’ behind. The intimate, cheeky dazzle of her viral videos was completely lost amongst the heaving screams and flashing lights. Even though the crowd panted along to songs like her single “New In Town,” her walk-around-and-sing-the-hits routine didn’t pack enough of a wallop to convert newbies. Not enough to get droves clamoring from Peoria.

Photo of Asher Roth (c) Hannibal Matthews

By Mawuse Ziegbe

One of my favorite songs right now is Jack Peñate’s calypso-laced “Tonight’s Today.” The cheery percussion is buoyed by a heady choir, balmy guitar, plucky Kalimba and possibly the best of the use cowbell since The Rapture. A pale English kid with artfully mussed hair who’s besties with stars like Adele and The Maccabees, his 2007 debut Matinee features jittery rock with faint doses of ska tossed in for good measure. But any pouty kid with a garage and some guyliner can churn out guitar-driven pop. Cheers to Jack and his beachy jam; I raise my Mai-Tai in praise.

Another music man I must toast is Asher Roth. (Yes, that stoner kid with that stoner anthem, “I Love College.”) He and Chester French rocked the Blender Theater the day after the release of his debut, Asleep In The Bread Aisle. And I had so much fun! He and his equally blithe crew ripped songs like “Lion’s Roar” and “Be By Myself.” The band joined him for a quick rendition of Soul For Real’s “Candy Rain,” complete with the cheese-laden ’90s dance moves and then Beanie Sigel bounded out of irrelevancy to kick a verse. When the crowd erupted during “She Don’t Want A Man,” the flail of uncoordinated frat-boy arms was almost poetic. I was truly converted when he fired off a pro-organic food freestyle that both dropped jaws and silenced nonbelievers. The gleefully drunken college kid thing usually screams shallow, trendy hype but I really can’t hate on this. Sometimes, blonds just have more fun.

And if you’re into fun your new favorite band is Buraka Som Sistema. The Portuguese collective infuses the snappy Angolan genre of Kuduro with gritty club beats on their LP Black Diamond. They gripped a sold-out Bowery Ballroom with their urgent dance-or-die rhythms. I’ve posted up in more than a few venues but I’ve never seen New Yorkers go batshit like that. The group is officially four dudes but guest frontwoman/dancer/party-starter MC Blaya shut it down with her tremulous booty. The crowd bounced en masse, yelping along to hits like “Sounds Of Kuduro” and Buraka barely left the stage before the revelers whooped for an encore. Then, while DJ Sega gracefully crowd-surfed, the rest of the band splattered the audience with a Super Soaker.

Also doing the tour thing is Grammy-winning songstress Chrisette Michele. Her jazzy style harks back to that gin-swishing, smoking coat era when dames were dames and she flaunted her sass throughout her hour-long BB King’s set with angsty anecdotes about men who done done her wrong. With her platinum pixie and prefacing of “Best Of Me” with “has anyone ever fallen in love with an idiot?” she read like an adult contemporary Etta James. She also chatted about her John Legend collaboration, “Love Is You” breezed through her boppy single “Epiphany,” and enjoyed a brief guest appearance from Danity Kane’s D. Woods. Even with post-breakup bitterness, a 45-minute wait and random pop vixen cameos, the crowd was enamored with her. And that’s what makes a dame, a dame.

Photo of Phil Asher © Jaecyne Howell

A most curious thing occurred at the office one day. Ambling down the halls I happened upon a bin of unwanted swag. While it’s usually chock full of crap like cookbooks by convicted felons and posters of small-town yokels named Lil’ No No, this time teetering at the top of the heap were three albums from artists that apparently no one else in the office cared about: 88-Keys, Peter Bjorn & John and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ roiling SNL performance the week before was the highlight of my recent sojourn to Boston and I’ve been diggin’ the shimmery, disco gloss they’ve slathered on their signature reckless glammy rock. I’m all over the way the slightly sinister opening strains set up the rumbling and unexpectedly groovy “Dragon Queen.”

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On October 7, 2008, Dave Eggers, founder of 826NYC (and author of “A Heartbreaking Work By A Staggering Genius” and “What is The What,” both must-reads) will host the annual Revenge of The Bookeaters, a benefit for his organization which helps students, ages 6-18, develop their writing skills. If the line-up doesn’t temp you, the good cause will. Buy Tickets.

More info here: bookeaters.org/

Questlove leaked this allegedly unreleased Lauryn Hill track, for the good of the world:

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This is Ginuwine’s real name. This, and other hilarious parent-given names, compliments of Mark Edward Nero of About.com’s R&B column.

• Akon – Aliuane Badara Thiam. He’s claimed in
  the past that his full name is Aliaune Damala Bouga Time Puru Nacka Lu Lu Lu Badara Akon Thiam, however this has never been independently verified. (More info about Akon.)
• Alicia Keys – Alicia Cook. She’s said in interviews that she chose the name ‘Keys’ to represent her piano keys.
• Angie Stone – Angela Brown. FYI, she was known Angie B. back in the 1980s when she was in the singing group The Sequence. (More about Angie Stone.)
• Babyface – Kenneth “Kenny” Edmonds. (Read About R&B’s Q&A with Babyface.)
• Billy Ocean – Leslie Sebastian Charles.
• Bobby Valentino (aka Bobby V.) – Robert Wilson. He was born around Valentine’s Day, hence the stage name.
• Chaka Khan – Chaka was born Yvette Marie Stevens, but adopted the first name Chaka during the Black Power Movement in the 1970s. She took the surname Khan after marrying bassist Hassan Khan.
• Donna Summer – LaDonna Gaines. She adopted her stage name after marrying Helmuth Sommer, an Austrian actor.
• Dwele – Andwele Gardner. (More about Dwele.)
• Erykah Badu – Erica Wright. She changed the spelling of her first name as a girl. Badu in Arabic means truth and light. (More about Erykah Badu.)
• Ginuwine – Elgin Baylor Lumpkin, Jr. (More about Ginuwine.)
• India.Arie – India Arie Simpson. (More about India.Arie.)
• J. Holiday – Nahum Grymes. It’s a biblical name – his mother’s a preacher.
• John Legend – John Stephens. (More about John Legend.)
• Joss Stone – Jocelyn Stoker. (More about Joss Stone.)
• Kelis – Kelis Rogers. After marrying the rapper Nas (Nasir Jones), she legally changed her name to Kelis Rogers-Jones. (More about Kelis.)
• Macy Gray – Natalie McIntyre.
• Marvin Gaye – Marvin Gay Jr, with no ‘e’ on the end.
• Maxwell – Maxwell Rivera.
• Ne-Yo – Shaffer Smith.
• Nokio (of Dru Hill) – Tamir Ruffin. (The real names of all Dru Hill’s members.)
• Omarion – Omari Grandberry. (More about Omarion.)
• Patti LaBelle – Patricia “Patsy” Holte. She was given the name Patti LaBelle by Blue Note Records when her former group, the Bluebelles (whose name later became Labelle) signed with the label.
• Prince – Prince Rogers Nelson. He was named after jazz pianist Prince Rogers of the Prince Rogers Trio.
• R. Kelly – Robert Kelly. (More about R. Kelly.)
• Raphael Saadiq – Charlie Ray Wiggins. (More about Raphael Saadiq.)
• Rick James – James Johnson, Jr.
• Sade Adu – Helen Folasade Adu.
• Seal – Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, also known as Sealhenry Olumide Samuel.
• Sly Stone – Sylvester Stewart. He took his stage name as an alias during the mid-1960s when he was AWOL from the military.
• Smokey Robinson – William Robinson, Jr. As a kid, he was nicknamed “Smokey Joe” by an uncle because he loved cowboy movies. Eventually the name evolved to just Smokey.
• Sisqó (of Dru Hill) – Mark Andrews. (The real names of all Dru Hill’s members.)
• Stevie Wonder – He was born Stevland Judkins, but his last name was legally changed to Morris after he joined Motown Records when he was 12.
• Tammi Terrell – Thomasina Montgomery. (R.I.P. Tammi.)
• Tank – Durrell Babbs. (More about Tank.)
• The-Dream – Terius Nash.
• Tina Turner – Anna Mae Bullock. She was given her stage name by her one-time husband, singer-musician Ike Turner.
• Trey Songz – Tremaine Neverson. (More about Trey Songz.)
• Tweet – Charlene Keys. Tweet was her nickname growing up, long before she used the name professionally. (More about Tweet.)
• Usher – Usher Raymond IV. (More about Usher.)

Thanks Poplicks, for making us laugh out loud today.