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Way of the Tosser: A Mockumentary from Canada

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If you grew up listening to or watching media springing from Great Britain, you already know what the word ‘tosser’ denotes. If not, google it and find out why the title to his movie is amusing in more than one way. It’ll be worth the time, guaranteed.

Rock Paper Scissors: The Way Of The Tosser did the rounds at festivals a few years back and was able to garner a bit of positive press, even if the interwebs haven’t always cast an enthusiastic vote. But with a feature as peculiar as this one, there’s good reason why a spate of normals didn’t quite get the whole thing.

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MHz: A Columbus Supa-Group

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Hearing Columbus dudes get air time around the turn of the millennium was truly amazing. It’d been the better part of a decade since Bone, Thugs ‘n Harmony did anything that folks paid attention to outside of Cleveland. And Columbus hadn’t exactly been churning out hits in the ensuing times. So, for MHz to gain a bit of momentum, RJD2 to get a record deal with a prestigious label, Copywrite head in the same direction and Camu Tao as well was all kind of inspiring. And while the expansion of the internet has been touted as giving random people the belief that their work, of whatever variety, to be heard. For me, it was this stuff. I hadn’t ever even entertained the notion of working out hip hop stuff (I still don’t), but in my life time there hadn’t ever been any sort of spotlight shined on the state I hailed from.

Along with all of this, illogic and Blueprint were kicking around. Heady times.

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Bo Diddley Gits Fuzzed and Funky

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Bo Diddley remains one of the most entertaining, if not most important R&B or rock players in the history of recorded music. The reason for skirting his being ridiculously important (even though he clearly was and is) stems from the huge number of players springing from the late forties and fifties that sought to work in the same aural terrain as Diddley. Of course, no one else has a beat named after him. So, there’s that.

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Baths: IDM and Pop Musics out of LA

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Mothers. Fathers. Gather ‘round. If your kid has some weird tendencies, distract him by purchasing a musical instrument, or three, of his or her liking. You know what? Even if your kid isn’t a psycho in training, dollop musical gear throughout your home. It’ll make that oh so adorable offspring of yours something more than a drone in ensuing years. Really.

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Wild Man Fischer: Recommended Listening, Kinda

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This isn’t a hoax or a gimmick. It’s Frank Zappa and his label, Bizarre, being genuinely interested in music that wouldn’t have had a chance at proper distribution otherwise. Of course, it’s then a fair question to ask, why wouldn’t Wild Man Fischer have been able to secure a record deal otherwise?

Good question.

Well, being homeless and schizophrenic doesn’t usually make for a combination readying one for international stardom. Fischer, though, spent his days stalking up and down the Sunset Strip, sparing change. When he was actually able to pick up a few cents here and there, he rewarded the contributor with an original song (there’s a track on Fischer’s album detailing just this activity). And this is, presumably, how Zappa found Fischer.

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Camu Tao: Beats Cudi...In Time

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Enough of the ‘ahead of its time’ crap. That’s impossible. Music, art and literature are created as a result of current societal, social and whatever other pressures are floating around. There’s no such thing as a time machine, so artists capped with the ‘ahead of its time’ thing is all hyperbole without a way to substantiate any of the claims.

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The Lady Eve: Henry Fonda Can Act, Just Not Here

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It’s pretty useless to reduce any effort – film, literature, music or otherwise – to a type. Of course, there are generally accepted lines of delineation separating comedy from action. So, in keeping with that, Preston Sturges’ 1941 film The Lady Eve might be considered a love story. Or a battle of the sexes film. Or a revenge tale.

Regardless of how the film’s understood, though, it doesn’t rate as one of the strongest – in terms of acting, at least – to fall under the auspices of Sturges’ name. And that’s kinda surprising.

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MF Grimm: Beef and Jail Time

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There’s a good chance that those listeners familiar with MF Grimm are aware of the emcee as a result of his convoluted relationship with DOOM. There’s no shame in that and there’s probably no one willing to dispute that statement despite Grimm’s prowess as a performer.

Coming up together in New Yawk found the two hooked up on a variety of pursuits. Grimm wasn’t a proper member of KMD, but apparently financed one of its recordings as well as receiving production credit. There’re other connections, but all of it was disrupted when Grimm ran into trouble as a result of his ‘career’ slingin’ drugs.

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The Comedians of Comedy: Intelligent Nerds as Psuedo Rock Stars

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Any good documentary effort should possess some sort of narrative arch. Whether it’s preconceived or arises out of the footage organically, the arc functions as a way to maintain the audience’s attention and hopefully interest.

That being said, performance films don’t generally adhere to that format, instead (and obviously) focusing on a series of live footage focused on revealing interesting moments of one’s craft whether it’s a good solo, a funny joke or just some audience member being assaulted by police after causing a disturbance.

For the Comedians of Comedy, a film detailing a tour undertaken by Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Zack Galifianakis and Maria Bamford, the latter approach of cobbling together shows is utilized. I mean, what kind of plot could emerge from that set up?

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Tajai from Souls of Mischief - Vocabulary & Complex Rhyming (Video)

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Here Tajai comments on the difference between intelligence and one's ability to actually rap. It all makes sense. But at the same time, does a book that details 'how to rap' make sense? Probably not, but hearing any of the Souls of Mischief get a chance to bs for a minute is usually a treat - this is no exception.

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