Do You Remember?

So I was thinking about getting some lunch yesterday, and I remembered this restaurant that we used to have on Kildaire Farm Road in Cary. It wasn't far from where the Goodberry's is now. It was called PD Quix and it was basically Cook Out before Cook Out ever existed. It was glorious. They had awesome burgers that were super juicy. PD Quix also provided me with my first taste of onion rings. Theirs were the best! You top off that meal with one of their hand spun milkshakes and you're set. Whatever happened to that place? As I was listening to the new Wale mixtape this morning, I decided to "google" PD Quix and I found that they still have a couple in some smaller towns down between Fayetteville and Wilmington. This led me to wonder what happened to other great restaurants that we had here in Cary that all of us loved like Coyote Cafe. That place was the BOMB!!! Authentic Mexican food, live music on the weekends, outdoor seating, and TV's showing sports. Can you really beat that? My answer is no. If y'all have other restaurants you miss, post them in the comments section. Let's reminisce like Pete Rock.

There's Hope

I saw this on okayplayer and it gave me hope that good musicians can be successful. Congrats to Lupe Fiasco. I'm a huge fan!

Glow In The Dark Tour

On Friday May 9th, my buddy Zach and I went to Walnut Creek to see the Glow in the Dark Tour. It was a great show. The line up featured Lupe Fiasco, N*E*R*D, Rhianna, and Kanye West. With the exception of Rhianna these are some of my favorite musicians so my expectations were huge, and I was not disappointed.

The show was set to start at 7 but we wanted to get there early. It's a good thing we did. We got to our seats at 6:20 and Lupe was already a few songs into his set. We were confused why he would start so early until we found out that the City of Raleigh has a noise ordinance for outdoor concerts. They have to be over by 11pm. Lupe's set was good. He performed some of my favorite songs like Kick, Push, Superstar, Hip Hop Saved My Life, and Streets on Fire. The only thing I was disappointed about with Lupe's set was that he seemed to be going through the motions. He didn's seem to get into it as much as I expected and I can understand to some degree because he was playing to a mostly empty arena.

Next up were rap/rockers N*E*R*D. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, N*E*R*D is headed by super producers the Neptunes (Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo) and their long time friend Shay. Pharrell did a great job getting the crowd that was slowly filling in involved and excited. He even asked everyone on the lawn to come right up front and to ignore the security people in the yellow jackets. He went into the crowd himself and passed 30-40 feet from me and Zach. He also brought some fans on stage to dance with him which was hilarious. They performed some of their classic songs like Rock Star and She Wants To Move and they also performed some of their new material like Everyone Nose and Spazz. I loved their performance.

After a 20 minute intermission for a set change, R&B singer Rhianna was on next. I'm not a huge Rhianna fan but her performance was entertaining. She performed all of her major hits and I'm sure every teenage girl that was there knew every word. She had some good back-up dancers and it seemed like she's really improved her singing ability since she was first signed. My favorite part of her performance was probably Breakin' Dishes or Please Don't Stop the Music, but I also thought it was super cool when she performed the smash single Umbrella because every person in the stadium was singing along to every word.

Finally after a really long (45 minutes) intermission for another set change, Kanye took the stage. His set was set up like the surface of the moon. There were rocks all around the sides and the stage was sloped to the front. There was a huge screen behind him. The entire band (back-up singers and dj included) were out of view underneath the set. His performance followed a story line of him being crashed on a foreign planet and trying to find his way home. The lighting was OUT OF CONTROL (see picture above)!!! It was breath taking! He had amazing command over the crowd too. My favorite parts of his performance were Through the Wire, Get 'Em High, Can't Tell Me Nothin', Stronger, and Homecoming. The only glitch in the performance was near the end when he performed Touch the Sky featuring Lupe Fiasco. Kanye performed his two verses and then threw it to Lupe to finish the song and Lupe never came out. You could see Kanye looking at one of the stage managers off to the side like "what's going on?!" and then he just finished the song himself. I guess Lupe was sick or not feeling like coming out. This didn't ruin Kanye's set though. I thought the whole thing was awesome!

I really enjoyed this concert and it was definitely worth the money I spent. I'm glad I got their early enough to catch Lupe. N*E*R*D was so much fun and I was impressed with Rhianna. Kanye of course closed it out perfectly. I really thing big time artists should do more big tours like this.

On a side note, one awesome treat that Kanye, Pharrell, and Lupe hooked up their fans with is a remix that they made available online. It's a remix to the N*E*R*D song "Everyone Nose" and it features verses by Kanye, Pharrell, Lupe and Pusha T (Clipse). You can find it if you look hard enough.

RailHawks Update

A quick update for all you soccer fans. The Carolina RailHawks ended the month of May with a huge win Wednesday night against defending USL-1 champions, the Seattle Sounders, winning 2-1. That puts the RailHawks tied for 3rd in the league with 13 points and a 3-0-4 record. They're the only undefeated team in the league. Excellent play by new comers Matt Watson and Martin Nunez have helped a good defensive team become more offensive minded. The next home game is June 10th (first round of the US Open Cup). The game will be played on field 2 at WakeMed Soccer Park and tickets will all be $10 and parking will be free. This is because the main stadium field will be replaced this month. If you have any questions about the team or want to come out to see them play, let me know!

Record Review

THE ROOTS - RISING DOWN

Def Jam Records - 2008

Noel's Rating:

4.5 / 5.0

Review: This is the Philadelphia based hip-hop band's 10th studio album and it's probably their most heavy, dense, and political album. Each track is charged with emotion and most of the songs up until the very last song are extremely dark. The album starts out with a sound bite of an argument the group had with some record label people back in '94. This heated argument makes the listener slightly uncomfortable but it's the perfect intro to the album.

The next two songs are two of my favorites on the disc, the title track featuring Mos Def and Styles P and Get Busy featuring Peedi Peedi and Dice Raw. The title track touches upon almost every social ill that Americans face from global warming to prescription drug abuse. The thing I love about this song though is that none of these things are glorified like you would see on most "rap" songs, but these conscious MC's show what is wrong with our country. Get Busy is a classic Boom Bap track with dope verses by each MC.

Other tracks that stood out to me are the bouncy I Will Not Apologize and the closing song Rising Up. Apologize's infectious beat and hook left me putting that song on repeat. I also liked the Talib Kweli cameo on the hook. Rising Up is a go-go inspired conclusion to the album and keeps the ending of the album lighter in mood than the rest. My favorite part of that song is Wale's guest verse. This up-and-coming DC hip-hopper drops some sick lines including "you other rappers ain't eatin'/ you're Olsen twinin'." You gotta love it!

The only knock I have against Rising Down is that it's too short. I really wish that there had been 2 or 3 more songs. That's a good sign for the Roots though. Although they may never see commercial success, they've perfected the craft of putting together hip-hop albums that have a message.

It's Been A Long Time...

I shouldn't have left you, without a hilarious video. I saw this on a blog of one of my favorite music producers (Just Blaze). It's surveillance tape from a Best Buy. There's no sound (and I wish I could hear what song was playin'), but it's still one of the funniest things I've watched.

http://view.break.com/506192 - Watch more free videos

I'll have reviews of the new Roots album and the Glow in The Dark tour later this week!

NBA Playoffs, Kanye Concert, Etc.

So the NBA Playoffs are starting up soon. The LA Lakers locked up home court advantage in the west. I hate the Lakers in case you didn't know. I find Kobe Bryant to be an arrogant jerk. Everyone is saying he deserves the MVP this year but no one remembers that he has the most help of any of the other candidates except for Kevin Garnett and he has the best coach in the NBA in Phil Jackson. I do admire Kobe's skills but does a guy that leads the league in technical fouls deserve to get the MVP award? Even though I can't stand him, I do have to admit that the following video is very cool.

Some people are debating if this is real or not. Personally, I've watched it several times (a couple of times in slow motion) and I'm convinced that it is real and that Kobe's an idiot and doesn't care as much about winning a championship as everyone thinks. Chris Paul gets my vote for MVP. As Bill Simmons has said numerous times, Chris Paul is having the best season of any point guard...EVER! If Steve Nash won it the past two years and Chris Paul has better numbers than Nash did those two years during this season, then I think he deserves it. Plus he has basically brought basketball back to New Orleans.

I'm very excited because in a little over 2 weeks, my buddy Zach and I are going to the Glow in the Dark Tour at Walnut Creek. The line up is Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco (see below), N*E*R*D, and Rhianna. I'm hearing that visually this will be the greatest concert in the last 50 years. Kanye has gotten video director Hype Williams to design holograms, Jim Henson's Mumpet Shop to design puppets, and world renown lighting crews to provide lights for the show. You can see some pics of the rehersal at Kanye's blog and I'll be sure to post more after the concert goes down. I'm way excited for that.

I'm also excited because the Carolina RailHawks 2008 Season Opener is quickly approaching. The final cuts have been made and the team is now fully assembled. They've played their last exhibition game. They open on the road this weekend in Atlanta against the rival SilverBacks. That game can be seen on the internet at www.usllive.com. The home opener is Saturday 26 April at 7:30 p.m. I hope to see some of y'all out there.

One other thing. The Roots new album Rising Down, comes out in two weeks. These guys are some of the hardest-working, most genuine artists out there. I encourage everyone who is into hip-hop music to go out and buy their album on 29 April. Don't be a jerk and steal it over the internet. Support good music.

I'm out!