You may have heard the name in the echoes of Grime and Dubstep over the years but Plan B aka Strickland Banks aka Ben Drew can hold his own when it comes to a tune. This London East-Ender has every trick in his bag when it comes to pleasing a crowd. Weather you’re feeling aggressive and in search of heavier and darker vibes to more sentimental crooning aimed to make a girl’s heart melt.

His debut album Who Needs Actions When You Got Words broke new ground for UK hip hop in 2006 with its down to earth sensibilities to tell a story. Examples of that talent can be found on “No Good,” which re-interpolates the Prodigy’s hit single of the same name. The track also received a killer Chase and Status remix.

Recently, Plan B has started transitioning himself from song to the silver screen. He portrays a troubled cockney thug in Noel Clarke’s Adulthood and he more recently co-starred with the original badman himself, Michael Caine, in Harry Brown. He was also featured on the Harry Brown soundtrack. This featured the hit single “End Credits” where he was reunited with duo Chase and Status who he worked with for their debut, More Than Alot. Check Plan B contrast his melodic singer songwriter side with his harder edge on the track, “Pieces.” A hard hitting D’n'B track for the ages that comes with a great video.

But Drew is always evolving and enter Strickland Banks. The Defamation of Strickland Banks is a collection of modern Motown and Northern Soul with a touch of Hip Hop. In this alter ego Plan B undergoes a complete 360 from his usual hoodie and jeans to a stylish gent. The whole band perform in mod suits and fully embody the style of that musical era.

Plan B portrays Banks as a sharp-suited British soul singer who finds fame with bitter-sweet love songs like “Love Goes Down” and “Writing’s On the Wall” but loses everything when he ends up in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s as if Marvin Gaye went from his early Motown days to “What’s Goin”  in one broad stroke that’s then remixed by London grime artists. Take a listen and watch to his latest video from the project, “The Recluse” and i assure you’ll be sucked right into the story.

Plan B will be touring the U.S. supporting Bruno Mars and Adele through the Summer but he’ll also be taking time away from that tour to do more intimate headlining performances. He’ll be hitting Brooklyn on May 5th at The Williamsburg Music Hall and will be joined by DJ Teenwolf. It’s a can’t miss performance. Hope to see you.

Press Start! Don’t Press Start! What the fuck do I care? It’s a goddamn glorious Friday evening here along the Eastern Seaboard of the Empire proper. Wind whispering sexy promises of summer, the night air making my balls hurt with the promise of Spring Fever and low-cut dresses on campus. Anyways, if you’re new to the rodeo: this is a weekly column where I slap together five things that I deemed noteworthy in gaming this week.

As an airheaded asshole, I encourage you to share your happenings, for they are certainly of more worth and value than my own. Grab a pop, unbuckle those tight pants, and let’s relax in the world of dual-analogs and dragons.

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#1: James Cameron Says Gaming Will Drive 3D.
Well son of a bitch. I was comfortable being able to demonize the cinema for pushing 3D bullshit onto the unwashed masses. But here comes fucking Jimmy Cameron surfing on the bodies of dead Filipino Boy Prostitutes stuffed with cash, telling me it’s video games that are going to get this fucking technical abortion installed into houses.

(That was a serious fucking run-on sentence.)

Specifically, Jimmy was talking about video games being the driving force between glasses-free 3D, spouting off that the Nintendo 3DS and other “single-viewing devices that are engaging the person to play these video games will drive a lot of investment in autostereoscopic displays for that very reason.”

So now this shit is on us, guys. All of you giggling as you’re playing your 3DS know this! You’re fucking me in the ass! And it hurts so poorly. At least, if we’re going to suffer the 3Dpocalypse, it won’t be with some goggles strapped to our skulls.

Right?

Fuck.

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#2: Massachusetts Town Upholds Coin-Op Gaming Ban.
This one hits a bit close to home. I am a resident of the Boston area. Retarded (retahded?) accent and all. I take pride in the fact that we’re generally a godless, liberal bunch around here. A bunch of dongs rubbing up against one another, weed with nary a ticket, health care for the hobos. It’s good. It’s good.

However, somehow we’ve fucking failed. At least one town has. Meet fucking Marshfield. Motherfuckers in Marshfield have banned coin-op gaming in their town for a solid 29 years. Good lord. This week, a movement to repeal this banning of shit like Donkey Kong was struck down.

Struck down!

Where are the Crypto-Vaults hidden in this shit town? Furthermore, where is this town? I have not come across it in my travels. But it frightens me. With a vote of 655-554, the law was upheld. There will be no Pac-Man for the denizens of Marshfield.

Just failure. Failure.

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#3: Sega Drops Phantasy Star Online 2 Details.
In news that may only be exciting to me, Sega dropped some details for Phantasy Star Online 2 this week. Goddamn, did I ever love the original Phantasy Star Online. Nothing made my fat, unmotivated ass glow in my senior year of high school like booting up my Dreamcast, dragging a telephone wire all the way across my room  for 56k glory, and rocking out with some PSO. A total

There’s a serious fucking lull in my online gaming right now. WoW has finally lost its glimmer, I know myself enough to know I won’t give a fuck about Rift, Diablo III and Star Wars: The Old Republic might as well be vaporware with their unpredictable release dates.

I need something!

Even if I never get my paws on this son of a bitch, it’s a nostalgia drop that brings me back to the glossy lensed days of the Dreamcast. Simple days. Full of loot drops, endless dungeon cycling, and eating enough Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers to stack on a solid thirty pounds.

Oh senior year, I miss you.

(more…)

Summer is upon us and what better way to start blockbuster season than flipping a bus carrying convict Dominic Torrento? That’s exactly how Fast Five begins, right where 2009′s Fast and Furious ends – Dom (Vin Diesel) is convicted and being transported to prison. His sister Mia, now pregnant, and best pal Brian (Paul Walker) react to Dom’s sentence by doing what they do best – causing huge car crashes. This is pure popcorn entertainment at its very best and, besides one complaint, I loved every freakin’ frame of it. Its got really well-choreographed action, idiotic charm, and real stunt men doing real stunts. It’s the best bro-car movie since 2 Fast 2 Furious and the best of the franchise hands-down. It makes me want to do push-ups and pound a beer – at the same time!

After a news report states that NO ONE was hurt in the bus crash (seriously the thing flips like 11 times), we jump forward a few months to Rio, where Brian and Mia are hiding out. They get a gig from Dom’s ol’ buddy Vin (from the first Fast) stealing some DEA seized cars off a train. And BAM, Dom is there too. The job sours when it turns out that the Rio kingpin wants the cars and some DEA agents get shot. Is stealing DEA cars from a moving train ever easy?

Instead of fleeing Rio and running from the drug lord, Dom decides to rob the shit out of him. But he’s going to need help. EVERY secondary character (that’s still alive) from a previous Fast movie is called in. Tech expert Ludacris. Eye-candy Gisele who has the extremely important job of getting her ass grabbed by the kingpin. Motor-mouth Roman (Tyrese) who brings back his hilarious catch-phrase “I’m HUUNGRY” from Fast 2. Demolition experts Leo and Santos return as well. And let’s not forget Asian sensation HAN SEOUL-OH. Seriously, that’s Han’s full name in the movie. Fuckin’ A. There’s also Dwayne Johnson as DEA super soldier Hobbs. More on him later.

Snatching a 10-ton vault from a police station aint no cake walk, so the gang does some serious scheming and practice runs – complete with a mock police parking garage. And this is my only complaint. About 15-20 minutes of the film’s 2 hour run is spent on the gang stealing cars to find one with the agility to maneuver the parking garage without being spotted on camera. Then the plan gets flipped and the team just has to run ‘n’ gun. Way too much time is blown on running through the mock parking garage, only to throw it away in the end. BUT I can choke on my criticism because the actual heist is one of the greatest action sequences in forever.

I’m not sure how much of the vault they swag through downtown Rio during the climax was CGI’ed, but that shit is easy to spot so I’m going to say the majority of it wasn’t animated in post. Dom and Brian and their Dodge Chargers perform a full-throttle ballet as they drag the kingpin’s vault through Rio and it’s safe to say about 100 cop cars get annihilated in the process. It’s a well-crafted, competent sequence of stunt after stunt after stunt that honestly made me want to cheer. I love raw stunt flicks and this sequence has a serious old school feel to it. Bravo to the Lin’s crew and the stunt drivers for giving the CGI animators a day off. Besides real stunts, there’s plenty of helicopter shots so you get a real sense of perspective – something rare in this age of shaky-cam-BS.

The other action sequences are nothing to scoff at either. The foot-chase through a Rio favela is reminiscent of a Bourne rumble and the bout of fisticuffs between baldies Diesel and Johnson is pretty damn rough. You know it’s coming the whole film. It’s teased in all the trailers and TV spots. These two HUGE bald boys rumble. It’s a short but sweet sequence that actually reminded me of an out of the ring brawl from WWF. Just a lot of punching and grappling. Johnson sweats like he’s back in the WWF too. Always sweating.

Fast Five knows what the hell it is. It’s a mindless summer action flick with big stunts, small bikinis, and moronic dialogue. But it’s destined to be the Citizen Kane of 2011 mindless summer action flicks. It’s worth your hard-earned money to see on the big screen. Downloading cam-rips makes The Rock sweat even more profusely.

So all of you online got yourself a 30% off Twitter Tuesday this week. But what if you missed it? Well then you’ll have to get your ass to either our Brooklyn or Echo Park shop this weekend as both will be having 30% off sale on Мишка apparel.

Nothing we make is held back in-store this weekend… Nothing! So if you’ve had your eye on something but were either low on funds or just held off from getting it for whatever reason, well now is the time before it disappears for good.

Sale runs through Sunday.

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725
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Мишка LA
1547 Echo Park Ave
Los Angeles, CA

Always a pleasure to see Jack Beats, really stand up guys and kings amongst DJs. They recently played NYC and it was a great time for all. During their recent US tour they even played a full tag team set instead of it being one or the other on the deck. They’ve also recently added the use of controllers to their set which really takes theur turntablist approach to dance music to another level.

The duo recently released “All Night,” on Herve’s Cheap Thrills Records, which comes packed with a classic remix by Skream that will leave your teeth chattering for days! The single also features a b-side called “Elevator Music” which you can download for free.

Мишка
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
718-388-1725

J/M/Z to Marcy Ave
G to Broadway
L to Lorimer

Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact (2011) [4AD] // Grade: A+

Gang Gang Dance WIN. This fifth album from the New York experi-electro-etcetera powerhouse (and their first for tastemaking powerhouse 4AD) blows the doors off their entire run of releases. And all that stuff, especially 2008’s Saint Dymphna, was pretty god-damned amazing, so you can only imagine the intensity of Eye Contact.

And man, lemme tell ya…it’s intense. Seriously, mind-bogglingly intense. Not just in terms of quality (though, of course, that too) but the sheer size of its songs. The hushed lyric “I can hear everything/it’s everything time” says it all: Bollywood-infused rhythms collide with glitches and pops, the classic, chilly GGD synthesis poking through these expansive layers of world influence. 12-minute opener “Glass Jar” meanders through space and time (think EPCOT, but in the awesome, Carl Sagan-y way), leading into the undulating gleam of “Adult Goth” and the Knife-meets-Kate Bush-meets-10 Ragas to a Disco Beat “MindKilla.” It’s dreamy but abrasive, poppy but jarring; this almost sunny shimmer shoved into the grime of a dark, sweaty club.

Now, will it be the magic elixir that catapults Gang Gang Dance to crossover (ish) status? Probably not. Eye Contact is still a little too weird for all that. But it’s good weird. Perfect weird. Silent Shout weird, you know, the kind of weird that forces you to put a record on repeat for weeks, even when you feel slightly uncomfortable or confused, even when you know the album doesn’t give a shit whether you like it or not. Weird in the way the most amazing things always are.

I might be a little late on this, but it’s just too strange and awesome to pass up. I’m well aware that, much like a fear based Rule 34, if something exists, someone has a phobia of it. That being said, I am always surprised and intrigued when I discover not only one but a group of people who are deathly afraid of something that, to me, seems nothing but innocuous. So, here we have The S From Hell, a short documentary that screened at Sundance last year. It’s about a group of people who are afraid of the old Screen Gems logo. Yup.

I’ve been poking around trying to figure out whether this is supposed to be a joke or whether, perhaps, there really are some people who find that logo to be the mark of the beast. Regardless of it’s validity (I sort of want to believe it’s legit) this 8 minute film is quick, fun, strange, and extremely well produced. Rodney Ascher, the creator, claims to have been so disturbed by the logo that he was compelled to make this film. So, you all be the judge: when you stare into the face of evil, do you see… THE S FROM HELL?!?!

For those who still don’t know, XLR8R magazine has been the authority in forward thinking electronic music for the past 18 years! Back when we had to hit the newsstands to stay up on shit. While they still put out a great print magazine they’ve also moved onto the digital age keeping your BPMs synced with what’s going on in the worlds of electronic music.

But in addition to bringing you the coolest of cool with music content, they run weekly giveaway contests. This week it’s our turn to offer up some cool points to their readers and our followers. Second place will receive a $75 gift certificate to our online shop while first place will walk away with a $75 gift certificate and our skatedeck featuring Playboy’s Cybergirl Kristen Pyles. I’m sure you all remember Kristen from Ellen Stagg‘s steamy Fall 2010 shoot, right?

All you need to do is head over to Xlr8r and sign up before it’s too late and you’ll be entered into the raffle. Be sure to also check the box and sign up to our mailing list if you already aren’t.

Oh shit! The Buckwheat Groats are back! Everyone’s favorite grain loving, chicken cooking, mall chillin’, crack smokin’, space travelin’, Satan worshipping, gun totin’, Мишка sportin’, white rapping child soldiers, the Groats of Buckwheat, have returned to tear the world’s puny little face off and use it as a blunt wrap. This time it’s all about the trees. That’s right: Happy Arbor day ya grundles!

As you can see, Funny or Die is all up on these Groats, celebrating this usually most inauspicious of holidays in their honor. As usual, perhaps even more so, the Groats, AKA Penis Bailey, The Bailey and Lil’ Dinky (or Deff Janiels is you prefer) are treading that glorious line between funny and just fucking awesome. The Groats also swung on by 350 Broadway to deck themselves out with all kinds of Мишка shit, because they just know what’s up like that.

What’s not to love here? Beat game: stepped up. Video Vixens game: stepped up. Puke game: stepped up. Pentagram shaped narcotics game: stepped up. Whole Milk cameo game: stepped up (PROTIP: I’m wearing a giant hot dog suit). SFX game: stepped the fuck up! Nah, I’m just kidding, we actually blew that house up FOR REAL. Now that’s Groatnasty! Best of all, you can see the Groats live this weekend!

That’s right, this Saturday night, the Groats will be holding a video release party at Lit Lounge with Heroes of the Open End. Fact: Buckwheat Groats live shows will give you awesome mutant superpowers. Just sayin’. So grab your guns (don’t bring guns), assemble a posse, and get on down to the East Village to go HAM (like a lunchable…) and celebrate. There’ll be prizes, raps, rituals, and 10 kinds of swagger.

Saturday April 30th, 10PM
Lit Lounge
93 2nd Ave.
New York, NY
$6 | 21+