BGDS Music Review M-Twelve - Apocalypse In Paradise

      This is one of my fav release of 2018. Check out the review out at Electric Kingdom.
https://www.electric-kingdom.net/single-post/2018/05/09/M-Twelve-Apocalypse-In-Paradise-EP

Three Blind Guys go to Portland to Meet Hip Hop Royalty

     In March 2018,, two blind friends and I took a trip to Portland to attend the Old School Throw Back Jam. The Old School Throw Back Jam was held in Portland at the MotaCenter arena, and featured artists like Newcleus, JJ Fad, 69 Boyz, Tag Team, Taylor Dayne, Lisa Lisa, Stevie B and Expose. It wasn’t just any trip though; I was going down to see Newcleus, one of the headline groups and  an Electro and Hip Hop legend. Newcleus front man Cozmo D and I have known each other online for twelve, or so, years via us both playing on Global Funk Radio. He used to tune in when I first started playing on GFR in 2005, which was awesome, and later took the slot I played when I stepped away from live shows for a bit in 2009. I’ve spent many Saturday afternoons chatting with Cozmo and his wife Lady E in the GFR chat, listening in amazement to their son DJ Dogtrane, who is one of the best DJs I’ve heard on the turntables.  Later in the show I’d talk Steely Dan and Santana with Coz during his part of the show, where he shares his taste in Jazz, Funk, Disco, House  and International music with the world. Over the years, I’ve asked a couple times “Hey Coz, you guys coming up to Seattle?” The answer was always “No, but we’d love to, if we ever get invited.” The invitation finally came, and Coz told me in the GFR chat back in January about the show in Portland. It wasn’t Seattle, but close enough. I knew right away I would have to find a way to make the three hour trip down to Portland to see one of my favorite artists and GFR crew members.

     I started right away researching the best way to travel to Portland. Since my blind friends and I can’t drive, it wasn’t hard to figure out what we’d do, take the Amtrak train down. Due to a crash in December, in which the Amtrak derailed and killed several people, it wouldn’t be on the fast new Seattle to Portland line. None the less, at least we had the option to take a train. In many parts of the country there still is no way to travel from city to city, unless you have a car, leaving many blind people stranded like a lucky penny on the floor at a blind convention.   The train tickets, after the disability discount, came out to a little under $150, and were sent post haste to my Gmail inbox. I was impressed with the customer service at Amtrak and I have to say, they had the best voice activated customer service line I’ve ever experienced. My friend Jake used some of his hotel rewards to get a very reasonable room at a Days Inn just outside of Portland and we were all set for the trip. Well, almost set, we had to wait over a month for the day to arrive.

     The day of the excursion, after I double checked my luggage: “Vegan travel food, check; cannabis, check; tickets, check; cannabis check. I took the disability shuttle down to the Amtrak station in Tacoma to wait on our train south. The attendant behind the bullet proof glass was very helpful and redeemed my e-tickets for the real thing. He assured me he would help us to our seats when the train arrived, and I turned around and tapped my way to a seat. The lobby was empty for a bit, until an excited mother-daughter pair showed up, chattily talking about their upcoming trip to Portland. Shortly after, as the lobby filled up with travelers, my friends arrived and we tagged our bags for TSA, why I don’t know, no one ever checked what we were carrying. The lobby filled up, the train pulled in, and it was time to board. The attendant came over and offered to help us to our seats. It was a good time for my friends and I to practice our leading techniques we’d use later in the night. Using claps, clicks, whoops, and whistles, we helped lead each other forward and up the steps to the train.  We were seated on the Portland car, stowed our bags, and got comfortable to head south to see Newcleus.

     Newcleus is an Electro/Hip – Hop group whose origins go back to the late 70’s. One of Brooklyn’s pioneering crews, Jam On Productions later took the name Newcleus and they released their first single “Jam on Revenge, The Wiki Wikki Song” in 1983. The follow-up release, “Jam on It”, hit the bill board charts in 1984 and stayed there for a long fifteen weeks. Their Electro classic “Computer Age”, released that same summer, hit the R and B charts and cemented Newcleus as an Electrified Hip Hop staple. Their next release “Destination Earth”, my favorite, came out in 1995 and spotlights Newcleus’s diversity in the studio. Coz’s vocals, with long keyboard solos on many of the tracks like “Destination Earth”, “Automan” and “Computer Age Push the Button”, fill the release with soulful electricity that is seldom matched in music. Today, Newcleus is still touring, as is Cozmo’s side project Dream to Science, and you can hear the Jam on Production Crew on Global Funk Radio most Saturday’s. Check your local listings.

     We arrived in Portland on that brisk Friday afternoon ready to see what the Rose City had to offer three blind guys. After we debarked from the train, a speedy golf cart raced us around to the front of the station where we rubbed a lamp shaped like an I-phone and summoned an Uber GENIE . We waited for a while for the red Mercedes before texting to see where the driver was. “Where are you, we’re the blind guys standing here”. Of course the person in the car right next to me, that had been sitting there for a bit already, rolled down her window and said “Right here”. Yeah, blind guys doing stuff, it ain’t always pretty. We hopped in and headed off to the hotel about fifteen minutes away. The driver, named Alisha, gave us a tour as we chatted about what we were doing in Portland, and we educated the driver about how blind people could actually use cell phones; wow, some of us even had jobs, and OMG, Jake even owns his own café and can run a cash register. Despite her lack of knowledge of blind capabilities, she was very nice, and we reached the Days Inn just in time to rush into our rooms to get ready, not before a fussy hotel owner expressed his worry about us being safe in Portland as he showed us to our room. We rushed him out as he insisted he turn on the lights for us, and we got ready to go with the help of some Jose Cuervo and Cheese. I’m a vegan, so not that kind of Cheese, the weed Cheese. I abstained from the Cuervo, but spread the Cheese smoke thick up and out of the fart snatcher in the bathroom as we got ready to go. Thankfully, Alisha waited; we hopped back into the Uber and hurried to the arena.

     It was 6:30 by the time we reached the Mota Center in Portland where the Old School Jam was being held; the show started at 7:00. Once out of the car, I immediately noticed a searing sensation in my ear. A street preacher with a megaphone was excoriating a moving crowd on how we were all going to Hell and asking the J man to come back and save us all etc. etc. “WTF is wrong with these people? No one wants to hear that shit!” We merged into the flow of people and headed to the arena. With the preaching echoing around the concrete and the crowd of people moving in the dim light, it reminded me of some apocalyptic picture depicting the end of the world seen in so many movies and books. “Repent or you are all going to hell” he said. I shouted back during a pause in the nonsense, “Think we’re already there with you here.” And “Yes Jesus, please help us and tell him to stfu.” I refocused and we clicked and clapped and whooped our way down the steps and into the arena. It didn’t take long to notice we weren’t in the Old School Throw Back Jam crowd. Too many old white folks and too much blaring Rock and Roll to be a Hip Hop show. I made my way to the window to pick the tickets up, and sure enough, I discoveredwe were at the hockey game not the OSTJ. A very nice lady put us on the right path and led us over to the other side of the arena where we found our tickets that Coz had called in for us; section A, Row 6 seat 14, 15 and 16. Wow, great seats Coz!  “You the man!”

     We made it to our seats, and I let out a sigh of relief when we sat down. We made it. After talking briefly to the couple next to us, she had been given tickets by one of the singers of Expose, a Freestyle group playing later in the show.  A corporate type guy came out and introduced the lineup. I didn’t know it, but Newcleus was the first group up. The performance was amazing. Cozmo, Lady E and Al T rocked every part. Read my review of the show at Electric Kingdom. They finished up followed by JJ Fad. They only did one song “Super Sonic”, but it was cool to see the Arabian Prince scratching on the tune.  69 Boyz and Tag Team and some other Freestyle groups I’m not remembering played to the intermission. Yeah, the show was so long it had an intermission. The Old School Throw Back Jam didn’t disappoint. But, I was a little disappointed that I may not get to meet Cozmo. We hadn’t arranged how we would actually meet up.

     We sat down to check our texts at the intermission; low and behold, Coz had asked where we were sitting. “Oh wow, he’s going to come out here and meet us!” A couple minutes later he appeared and shouted “Where’s 14, 15, 16.” “Over here Coz”.  I signaled and there he was. Al T and Lady E were there also, and we all met up like old friends. We were making introductions and chatting, when suddenly out of the row, the Expose invite came rushing out. She didn’t push the three blind guys out of the way, but it was close. “I want to get a picture with Newcleus” she said as she pushed forward. Cozmo D being gracious and so nice obliged, but I was kind of like “hold up we were talking.”, but it was all good, no problem pushing some blind people out of the way for your Facebook picture. The pic was picked and the lights when down and Coz was like “I’m out.” “See ya Coz, and “loved the Chilly B rap Al T” were my parting words, and they were off. It was so nice of Cozmo to come out and meet us. He really didn’t have to come out, but he did, and we really enjoyed the moment. In 2018 it’s so nice to meet genuinely kind and generous people, and know there are still some out there. We didn’t get any pics, but meeting Cozmo D and the rest of Newcleus is a memory all three of us will never forget.

     The final three groups, Expose, Lisa Lisa and Stevie B, finished the show strong, and put a Freestyle exclamation point on the night. I’m still singing Stevie B’s song “Spring Love” and Expose really brought it. I can’t get enough of Freestyle. The genre is so unique with its 808 beats laced with heartfelt vocals. It makes me smile every time I hear it. My first introduction to the Freestyle sound came when I heard Planet Patrol’s “Play at Your Own Risk” when I first started DJing in the late 90’s. It still is one of my favorite songs though, and according to 808, the documentary movie, it was the first Freestyle tune ever made. It may or may not fit that description, but it is truly a classic.

     At the end of the show, the attentive security guard who helped us to our seats appeared by our row and helped us out of the arena. We arrived at the curb to wait for our Uber, and thankfully this time we had a drummer busk for us while we waited instead of the nut job street preacher. After about thirty minutes, Alisha and her red Mercedes pulled up to the curb and we hopped in and headed back to the hotel, still immersed in the Freestyle Hip Hop vibe. Back at the Days Inn, it was almost midnight; we hit the hay, the Jose and the "hay", ready to head back home the next day. Besides the emptying of the rest of the bottle of Jose, the next day home was pretty uneventful.  I slept nicely on the train. Upon arriving back in Tacoma, a disability shuttle arrived and took me back home. As I walked up to my front porch, I was pleased and relieved the trip was a success. We didn’t get lost, we made it to the show, we met Newcleus, and most importantly to me--my accident prone self didn’t run into anything. Cozmo said they were going to try and come to Seattle next year, and we can’t wait to see them again, this time maybe a little closer to home.