Alright, it’s time to announce the first winner of our No Kings pre-order Blowout VII ticket giveaway. Drum roll please…. Luke Walker! Congrats dude, you’ve won tickets to every single night of the Doomtree Blowout this December for you and a guest. We’ll be picking three more winners in the coming weeks (plus one more very special VIP Blowout winner), so make sure you get that pre-order in soon to up your chances. Hit the webstore right HERE, or if you’d rather be visually wowed first, check out this quick album promo video Young Baby made (with a teaser of the “Gimme The Go” instrumental from the record).
I hope everyone had a happy Halloween. I passed out candy with the wife last night, and I have to say I forgot how many not so dressed up teenage dudes (with starter moustaches) manage to get out there and scam their way to bags full of candy. Haha, totally not cool dudes. We had a few people send in some pretty awesome Doomtree related carved pumpkins. Check these bad boys out.
Made me a little nostalgic, so I went back and dug up this classic pumpkin pic from a couple years back.
Last Friday was Dessa’s big Castor, The Twin release show at The Fitzgerald, and man was it something else. Such a beautiful evening. I’m talking MN Orchestra string sections, between song monologues, vibraphone players, crazy four part harmonies, INTERMISSIONS, OPERA BOXES!!! By far the fanciest show I’ve ever attended, and Dessa knocked it out of the park. Check out her blog post about it HERE with some wonderful photos by Zoe Prinds-Flash. And the homie Ben LaFond took more photos right over HERE. If you missed the concert, The Current will be broadcasting/streaming a special hour long version of it on November 8th. We’ll keep you posted with details.
The following morning I changed out of my fancy sweater, threw on a maroon and gold U of M hoodie, and went down to TCF Stadium with my family to watch the Gophers take on Iowa. I hadn’t been to a college football game in about 20 years, and this ended up being one for the ages.
This new stadium is amazing, and my pops was able to score some pretty ridiculous seats (thanks Pops). The Gophs ended up coming back and heroically defeating Iowa by a point in the final minutes to snag only their second win of the season. Everybody went nutz! Here’s a shot of the field after they cleared the stands to celebrate. Go Gophs!
AND the Vikings won on Sunday too, doesn’t get much better than that. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The crew took a visit to the Best Buy campus last week for a quick meet and greet (yep, No Kings will be available in select Best Buys this time around). Here’s the gang prepping for probably our earliest performance to date, a 12:00 lunch show.
Tons of plaques on the walls. My favorite had to be this platinum Now That’s What I Call Music 15 one though. Too many hits to recall. Chingy!!!
OK, that’s about it for now. I’m getting ready for the first in a two part seminar that Dessa and I are giving over at McNally Smith tomorrow about the indie hustle and how to put out/promote your own music. That last sentence makes me feel kind of old. I’ll leave you with a couple Bonus Jams from one of my new favorite rappers, Meek Mill. This dude has been bubbling out of Philly for awhile now, and last year he signed up with Rick Ross and MMG. I’ve always been a huge fan of Philly rappers, from Black Thought/Malik B/Dice Raw to all of State Property (Peedi!!!), so I have a feeling that might be a huge part of why I’m so into this. This guy crushed that Maybach Music crew album that came out last spring though, and now he’s got this new Dreamchasers mixtape that just dropped. Certainly not for everybody, but it does bang quite supremely out of my Camry’s system. Here’s a couple of my favorites (skip to verse two on the first one).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1itiCaFqvE
I hope you all have a great week. See you next Tuesday with another Blowout winner, plus some exciting details on the special guests of the first few Blowout nights. Get that pre-order in HERE!!!!
— Beak