Pat Van Dyke, Melinda Camille, DJ MentPlus & Friends "RE: Crate" Bob James' Jazz-Fusion Classic "Nautilus" & The Bee Gees' "Love You Inside & Out" (RE: Crates 001 45)

"After the release of Technicolor HI-FI, the fellas from Open Crates approached me about recording some music to launch a series of 7-inch vinyl releases that would feature remixes, re-works, and edits of existing music... essentially, a series of "bootlegs" or "white labels." I'd been anxious to take a stab at recording re-interpretations of songs that had influenced me over the years, so I was keen to make it happen," self-described drummer, producer, and band leader Pat Van Dyke (PVD) wrote within a recently emailed statement. PVD has once again teamed up with his "It's Alright" collaborators Melinda Camille & David Stolarz, as well as bassist Josh David, DJ MentPlus, and horn players Bryan Beninghove, Ted Chubb & Peter Lin to collectively unveil Open Crates' premier edition of their RE: Crates 45 series. "A few months passed and we had a show at Brooklyn Museum performing music from the Modern Vintage LP that I had released earlier that year with John Robinson. Shabaam Sahdeeq, El Da Sensei, and Homeboy Sandman were in the building, so we let the three veteran emcees loose on the Bob James classic "Nautilus." Steve [Selector] from Open Crates was in the audience and immediately after the show, asked about recording it for the series. A song like "Nautilus" that is so ingrained in the DNA of Hip-Hop—while also a defining recording from the Jazz Fusion years of CTI Records—seemed like a perfect fit to launch the RE: Crates series," PVD enthusiastically continued. Nothing is confirmed, but I would seriously LOVE to hear an RE: Crates 001 "Nautilus" Remix complete with Homeboy Sandman, El Da Sensei, and Shabaam Sahdeeq and I can confirm that I put a bug in Open Crates & PVD's ears to get it rollin'!

While Who Sampled lists the top five most popular Hip-Hop tracks sampling Bob James' 1974 Jazz-Fusion composition "Nautilus" (out of a whopping 280 songs) as Slick Rick's "Children's Story," Ghostface Killah's Raekwon & Cappadonna-assisted "Daytona 500," Eric B. & Rakim's "Follow The Leader," Main Source's Nas-backed "Live at The Barbeque," and Run-DMC's "Beats to The Rhyme;" RE: Crates 001's B-side, a Melinda Camille-helmed cover of The Bee Gees' "Love You Inside Out" only has 18 samples submitted to Who Sampled including tracks released by the likes of Hip-Hop & R&B heavyweights Jay-Z & R. Kelly, Snoop Dogg, The Game, Brian McKnight, and Foxy Brown. Columbia.edu additionally notes that The Bee Gees recorded a special prank version of "Love You Inside Out" for their manager, Robert Stigwood "with the alternate line "backwards and forwards with my c**k hanging out" (instead of "with my heart hanging out") just to see if he was paying attention. He was..." Pat Van Dyke further details that "Melinda Camille and I were already in the studio recording new music (coming soon), so it seemed like the right move to cut an instrumental version, as well as the vocal version with Melinda that ended up landing the B-side spot on the record. Veteran beat-maker, DJ, producer, and [Open Crates] Crew; DJ MentPlus was the final piece of the puzzle, providing the cuts for both tracks. Expect more releases in the RE: Crates series very soon!" Pat Van Dyke's Bob James & The Bee Gees re-interpreting RE: Crates 001 7-inch is currently available for purchase from his PVDMusic Bandcamp page for an incredibly cheap $10 USD or more, as well as $5 digital download, released on Jersey City-based Open Crates Records.

"Let Me Shine for You:" Lindsay Lohan for Playboy (Winter 2011-12 Leak)

Lindsay Lohan essentially embodies exactly "What NOT to Do In Hollywood :" Fame, fortune, success... sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll . Within a fairly short period of time, Lohan somehow managed to obtain a plentiful helping of POWER @ a very young age. This gradual rise-downfall was captured on film; Between 1998-2010, she portrayed a wide array of roles across the silver screen in movies including: Mean Girls, Bobby , Herbie Fully Loaded , Georgia Rule, Machete , and Freaky Friday . Between rapid-paced film shoots, Lindsay Lohan also found time to record 2 Pop Rock albums for Casablanca , Speak (2004) and A Litter More Personal-Raw (2005). Needless to say, Lindsay Lohan has gotten roped up in a lot of troubles and woes with the law over the last 3-5 years... a vicious cycle of drugs, arrest, court, rehab, "daddy issues," jail time [Repeat]. That's the pure basics of it - But Google that shit for additional info, if necessary. Towards the end of...

[W]reckless, Topless American Youth: Lana del Rey - "Born 2 Die" (Britney Spears Birthday 30)

Lana del Rey [Lizzy Grant] effectively became 2011's "It Girl" with the release of her phenomenal debut single, "Video Games" (Stranger) . Like many struggling singer-songwriters, Grant has been signed, dropped, and significantly changed her public image since bursting onto the scene (2009). With that said, it can be assumed that Lana del Rey has collected just as many "haters" as she has avid supporters. To be perfectly honest, the only other artist I can think of that made this much commotion... garnered so much wide-spread buzz/hate and critical acclaim -- right out of the gates -- with just one track is Britney Spears . And maybe in this post- Mike musical era, that's the true synthesis of Pop Culture: Britney Lynn Spears . After months of repeated teasing and speculation, Lana del Rey 's major label debut, Born 2 Die will [finally] be released this coming Jan. 30-31, 2012. Pitchfork reports that it will feature "Off to The Ra...

Liberty Bell Cracked In 1/2: Ween - "Freedom of '76" (Gene Ween's Final Send-Off)

Chocolate & Cheese (1994) was one of the first albums I bought with my own money. I was in some sort of BMG Music Club , where you'd buy 5 CD's and then get 10 for "FREE." It was all sent through mail order and you picked the titles from some special booklet. I'm almost positive that Chocolate & Cheese's side boob-baring album cover was what initially drew me in... mind you, I was 12-15 and the zany Ween logo/middle finger CD graphic really didn't hurt either. Honestly, I forget how I really felt about it @ the time, but a few years later, my older cousin Josh told me that Ween were this BIG college "jam band." CKY did some sort pf 93.3 radio takeover to promote their new album and played "Freedom of '76" late that night on air. Needless to say, I re-visited Chocolate & Cheese @ about 20-something this go 'round and I fucking loved it! Ween were really weird, yet talented... almost too talented. I can vaguel...

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