SHABAZZ PALACES TO RECORD LIVE ALBUM AT JACK WHITE'S THIRD MAN RECORDS
Who knew? Former White Stripes main man Jack White is a huge Shabazz Palaces aficionado; no record received more spins in the latter half of 2014 in his Third Man headquarters than Lese Majesty. To prove his fanaticism, White has invited Seattle's most forward-thinking hiphop group to cut a record at Nashville's Third Man Records on January 17. There they will enter the Blue Room and make a direct-to-acetate record in front of a live audience. Someone from Third Man enthused on the studio's website: "Very few records from last year got us as excited about the current state and hopeful for the future state of music as Shabazz Palaces' Lese Majesty. Easily the most oft-spun record on the Third Man office turntable in the second half of 2014, it was imperative that we bless the beginning of 2015 with a live direct-to-acetate recording from these psychedelic warriors from the Pacific Northwest. Shabazz Palaces' obstinately original oeuvre emanates from a fully formed higher conscious[ness], they plant their flag in the outermost realms of the hiphop global soundscape where vibrations throb into beat-heavy explorations, chrome covered constellations of higher reveries each offering its own sonic boom." Damn. This could be the thing that breaks Shabazz to a whole new demographic.
HISSSSSSS TAPE NIGHT TAKES DJING BACK TO THE OLD SPOOL
Dax Anderson (aka Diogenes, a beatmaker of mischievous and surrealist bent) is starting HISSSSSSS: A Tape Night on Wednesday, January 21, at Vermillion. He's framing HISSSSSSS as an event at which label folks can sell their cassettes and DIY artists can peddle their wares. That night, there'll be DJs working with this occasionally problematic format, too: Rachel LeBlanc (Debacle Records), Daniel Sansone (Kingdom of the Holy Sun), and Thad Wenatchee on the spools of plastic. Four slots are open to the public, as well. Anderson noticed an upsurge in local labels selling cassettes and consumers buying them, and figured since nobody else was taking the initiative, he would start a club night dedicated to a format many consider obsolete. "I love our amazing, thriving artist scene, and I think we need more nights dedicated to us," Anderson says. "Just us, hangin' out, talkin' shit, listening to each other's music, and enjoying a moment together and having fun. [HISSSSSSS is] not a dance night, per se, as much as just a hangout." Anderson pinpoints why he loves tapes so much. "[They] are this awesome middle ground between quality and thrift. They're tangible and they're affordable. If you don't have a tape deck, cool, here's a download code. Wanna make some money? Press up 50 tapes and sell 'em for $4 and put the money you made back into more tapes. They have a good profit ratio, they sound rad, and they're finite. You can also use cool terms like 'DIY' and 'Limited Edition.'" 
