B&W Rap Videos that Make New York Look Super Menacing.

I never think of NYC as being bleak except when it's dark, or when it's shot in black and white. Gotta love 90's era hip hop for exploiting this. 99 Problems eat your heart out!

Wu-Tang - Protect Your Neck

Company Flow - 8 Steps to Perfection



Gang Starr - Just to Get a Rep



A Tribe Called Quest - Electric Relaxation



Black Star - Respiration

God Bless You Eric Wareheim

I had already declared Eric Wareheim god after seeing the "Pon De Floor" video, but after Mark showed me the "We are Water" video I decided to extol his godliness to all of you.

For those that don't know, Eric is one half of "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!", a show that deserves it's own post altogether. Lately though, Eric has also been producing some of the greatest music videos ever made. Here's a few (if you're at work good luck!):

MGMT - "The Youth"

MGMT - The Youth from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

A) I love these kids. When they start really dancing you can tell that in real life they're being groomed to be broadway stars.

B) Their routine is hot. Everyone in every club should be doing that chest bump.

c) Great narrative for the song. To capture the feeling of a song is one thing, to turn the feeling of the song into a story is another.

Flying Lotus - "Parisian Goldfish"

This video is so great you can't even watch it on this page (click on the picture for the web page).

Also, this is a hot jam. It's makes you want to get down in every sense of the expression. And they do!

Major Lazer - "Pon De Floor"

Major Lazer "Pon De Floor" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

When I first heard this song, this was exactly what I imagined: a house full of people getting freak nasty. Scientists have proven that combining marching band drum rolls and tweaky electronic sputters instantly creates sexual abandon and anarchy.

Apparently daggering is a real danger, but if the looks on their faces are proof, it's worth it.

Health - "We are Water"

HEALTH "We are Water" from Eric Wareheim on Vimeo.

I never would of guessed this was one of his videos. In retrospect, I can definitely make out his sensibility, but most noticeably missing is his hyper color palate, green screen, and DANCING. I mean at the heart of all the fun silliness, these videos make you want to dance uninhibited. There's no models or professional dancers who are perfectly sculpted and expertly trained, just normal people enjoying music.

This video is very different. The production values are very high, the color is very dark and muted, and the tone is dark. Which isn't to say that it's not still silly, I mean it is quite ridiculous.

It's nice to see sexuality askewed in a horror setting. I mean we've all seen this scene before where the beautiful blonde gets chased into the woods and manages to unexpectedly or accidentally dispatch her pursuer. But I love that this video instead revels in the absurdity of these kind of scenarios by mixing your expectations with ridiculousness (the goopy reverse penetration, the wig removal and crow-like make-up, and the indulgent orgiastic decapitation / castration bukakke).

You can see more videos by Eric here.

The Return of ARTLANTIS 2010

ARTLANTIS
Arts and Music Festival
June 5, 2010

Lawn of the Druid Hills Baptist Church

(Corner of Ponce De Leon Ave and N.Highland Ave)

It's back!!!! After the success of last year's event, ARTLANTIS returns with a vengeance. This year's event will feature over 40 local artists booths, 11 local bands, games, food and drink, a full gallery of Beep Beep artists, and much much more!

We'll be updating frequently as we near the date, so check the ARTLANTIS Blog to learn more details.

See you soon!

You HATE Atlanta? Well fuck you buddy!

Every once and a while I make the mistake of reading some inane posts about why people hate Atlanta (ex. this douche, these fuckers, and these douche fuckers). I was reading this bad boy, and as a native Atlantan unforseeably imbued with hometown pride, I decided to respond.

1) "Traffic sucks in this place!"

Admit it, you live in the burbs. If you lived in the city this would not be your biggest complaint.

When people complain about "traffic" they mean expressway traffic. When they say Atlanta, they mean 50 miles in every direction. Gwinnett is not Atlanta. Alpharetta is not Atlanta. Duluth, Marietta, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Smyrna, Norcross, Snellville are not Atlanta. To every person who complains about the traffic and lives in any of these areas, congratulations. All of you are the creators of the problem complaining about the problem.

If you are so incensed about gridlock, start speaking up and advocating commuter rails. Or move intown and figure out other ways to get around.



2) "There are too many 'Peachtrees'..."

You're an idiot.

3) "Wasn't that a restaurant last month...?"

You're complaining about business turnover? Like you randomly passed some furniture store in Cobb County and now it's a Denny's? Big fucking deal guy! Do you actually care about these places?

Support local businesses! Try your best to get to know someone who works at a store or restaurant you like or at least become enough of a part of the community to know why a business closed.



4) "No one here is even from Atlanta..."

I have no idea why this came up in a search for "atlantans".

That's just not true. If we are to use the broad definition of Atlanta to include the suburbs, most of the population is local. And even if that were not the case, what city in the U.S. is completely local?

Where? Bangor, Maine? Sweet! Of course I won't move there since I'm NOT FROM BANGOR.

5) "Everything is too spread out."
This is true. However, if you eliminate the 'burbs then we're merely discussing the limits of MARTA.

First of all, MARTA sucks. Second of all I've never seen any of you on it.

It's very easy to say that "MARTA goes nowhere" when you don't try to use it. All the complaints I hear about our public transit come from people who do not even try to use the system. I've been asking people for the last couple of months about how the lines changed names and how service has been ridiculously scaled back, and all I've gotten is blank stares. Because we don't use it (and by we I mean the entire middle class) we don't know specifically what's wrong with it. MARTA is a neglected puppy. If we ignore it, it will probably die. If we nurture it, we can teach it tricks.

There's plenty wrong with this city not only with some basic aspects of its infrastructure, but also things like our cultural apathy, our love of retail and restaurant chains (Eat Fresh!), and the massive racial divide. But the kinds of complaints I referred to earlier come from a very specific populous and I just can't stand this suburban attitude about the whole thing.

All of us who live in the city need to know why we do, embrace and extol the virtues of why we do, and work against, not complain about, the things we do not love.

- Jimmy James, Native Son

Jamie Iredell's book review

Click for the Creative Loafing article

Jamie Iredell helps run the Solar Anus readings in Atlanta. They've been meeting at Beep Beep for quite a while now and are a pretty dope group of folks. Check out their website and stop by one of the upcoming events.

http://www.jamieiredell.blogspot.com/

Not only do we provide snacks at our openings on occasions you can chow down on a healthy meal! We provide all the nutrition you need as evidenced by this picture from the Harbingers opening.

Yes, that is a hulless popcorn kernel coated with cheese food. It satisfied the dairy requirement.

Beep Beep voted Best Gallery by Creative Loafing readers!

We are very proud and honored to be voted Best Gallery and Best Gallery Spotlighting Local Artists in this year's Creative Loafing Best Of's. This really means a lot, and a very special thanks to everyone who voted!

We'll be throwing a party soon to show our appreciation (more details to come), but in the meantime read all about the rest of the winners here. Although you should definitely pick up the issue so you can see that sweet picture of Kelly and Maggie from Young Blood.