parvezlakha

I've always been a fan of people who's passions start off as a fun side project and then turn it into a career. It should come as no surprise when I was drawn to the story of D.S. & Durga. The Brooklyn husband and wife team David Seth & Kavi Moltz started the line purely as a hobby to give after shave to friends during the holiday season.

Kavi (who was an architect) said the idea came several years ago when they noticed when other friends in Brooklyn were making jams & ties but noticed no one was making artisan fragrances. David (who was a musician) taught himself how to make the fragrances through trial and error, reading old old perfume & medicinal books. The result is 21 scents (10 for her and 11 for him) with beautiful and descriptive names such as: Five Step Waltz, Siberian Snow, Boston Ivy and Cowboy Grass (to name a few) they also paint a historical story of the smell as well as deconstruct the premium sourced ingredients, such as my favorites Cowboy Grass and Burning Barbershop:

Cowboy Grass

A scent of of wild grasses and flowering herbs. Earthy & slightly smokey. Pure Haitian vetiver, white thyme & prairie sage bush evoke the wild American west. Perfect for robbing banks on a horseback.

Burning Barbershop

A fire broke out in the Curling Bros. Barbershop in Westlake NY in 1891. All the shaving tonics with their spearmint, lime, vanilla & lavender burned. A charred bottle was found half-full. It smelled like this. 

(download)

Click here to download:

people-of-project-d-s-durga-jsBwssFordbEimBetcdF.zip (25.36 MB)

Great packaging designed by Kavi and produced in small batches you can find D.S. & Durga fragrances in stores across the US & Canada as well as in the UK, Germany, Japan, New Zealand & Australia or purchase them for $94 online.

When I was 20 years old I thought I was the sh*t because I was going to college and running/buying for a boutique. Today this nothing compared to the new breed of students / entrepreneurs that are and hustling outside of class. Meet Bernard James when he is not studying at NYU Bernard is working on his 100% NYC made jewelry line which is made up of: necklaces, tie bars, rings and bracelets.

When I met Bernard at Project NYC he showed me his collection and I was amazed at the attention to detail, quality and craftsmanship (the pieces are all 100% sterling silver as well he uses leather and stone beads) that he put into each piece (although it shouldn't come as a big surprise just by seeing how well he is dressed). Only 1.5 years into his business Bernard's line can be found in San Francisco at Nomad, Stadium in Japan & Brooklyn Circus. Already off to a good start this is definitely a great start of more amazing things to come. Check out some of my favorite pieces from his collection in the gallery below.

PL

(download)

Click here to download:

people-of-project-bernard-james-EswEjzhgDEajdzskuafE.zip (35.02 MB)

When I went to NYC for my first time I wanted to see and experience the city for what it was and see all those things that that influenced me while growing up. One being my hip-hop side, so I stayed in Brooklyn and got a memorable tour of Bed Stuy, Marcy's Projects, Flatbush, Bushwick where I saw the homes of Notorious B.I.G. as well as Jay-Z. Then there was the other side the Post-Punk/Funk/Disco side which would be experienced by seeing Holy Ghost! and LCD Soundsystem at Terminal 5.

On May 22nd 2010 James Murphy, Nancy Whang, Tyler Pope, Pat Mahoney, David Scott Stone, Al Doyle, Matt Thornley, Phil Skarich, J.D. Mark and Phil Mossmam took the stage to play their 4th concert in 4 days of their farewell tour. After hearing James Murphy had lost part of his voice from the night before we lowered our expectations for the show a bit but he didn't let us down nor did the rest of the band. They had me (and the rest of the 3000 people) jumping up and down, shouting, signing, dancing and in complete awe. After an hour and half into the show we realized that this was only the start of the madness. For 3 hours you would see James telling the guitar and bass player to play it up or down, tuning the symbols on the drums all the while they would build up each song up to the point where it would just explode and do it again and again for the 15 song set. Finally the balloons dropped and the show was over, or was it? After that we went to the Highline Ballroom where the band and most of the label, family and friends would be partying and DJ'ing. We didn't hesitate to sneak up on stage to join in the mayhem and festivities.

Fast forward 10 months later the LCD announces they would be playing the last and final show at Madison Square Garden. As quickly as I wanted to jump on the opportunity and relive the magic and join in the funeral processions tickets were already being sold by scalpers for $1500 each. Like many other fans it I was disappointed not being able to witness the 4 hour sold out show. Although it isn't the full concert I am quite excited to see: Shut Up and Play the Hits and see how the 48 hours surrounding the show unfolds.

Even if you didn't see them in play or are a fan of LCD you defintiely do not want to miss watching the emotions and the build up of one of the greatest bands of our generation pIay at their peak in their hometown. I'm sure that after I watch the documentary I will no doubt listen to the concert and try to pretend I was there. I've uploaded the whole concert into 3 parts for you to hear, check it out: here, here & here. 

Feel free to drop a line and share your LCD Soundsystem experience: favorite part of the show, song, anything.

PL

ps. For those of you who are curious yes I have ditched the blackberry and its blurry photo taking.

The one thing I can't get enough of in Montreal is Hip-Hop. Yeah I can hit up the W on Wednesday and get my fill but it's not the same which is why I love visiting Toronto. Like a junkie going without Heroine for 12 hours I get my Hip-Hop and R&B fix from Flow 93.5 FM, G 98.7 FM (compliments of Jason Chambers!), the clubs and especially my cirlce of friends out there. My good friend Nabil has put me on to two great DJ's from Toronto: DJ Spoonz & DJ M-Rock. Both DJ's have taken on the most difficult challenge any DJ can put on themself and put together a "Best of"/ musical story from two names in hip-hop who are undeniabley the G.O.A.T.: Kanye West & Jay-Z.

Between the two luxury rappers they have: 17 albums (including Watch the Throne), 27 Grammy awards and combined both have sold over 70 million records worldwide. This is not taking into account the tracks they were featured on by other artists, mixtapes, songs that influenced them or they sampled for there music. Both Spoonz & M-Rock have embraced and conqured both artists careers and packed them in 2 mixes each!!

DJ Spoonz's approach to the 'What We Talkin Bout' mixes is very unique in that he uses radio and television interviews telling a story throughout the mix. The Jay-Z mix focuses Jay's Blueprint series while the Kanye's goes through a big chunk of his albums. Strong mixing and the track selecion and use of original samples is definitely on point! 

DJ SPOONZ - WHAT WE TALKIN BOUT - EVOLUTION OF THE BLUEPRINT by djspoonzonline

DJ SPOONZ X KANYE WEST NO INTERRUPTIONS by djspoonzonline

M-Rock has been getting tons of love from Pete Rock, Michael Rappaport, and Just Blaze to name a few for his mixtapes most notably: The Best of Kanye West. Both mixes conquer all elements of both musicians careers from original samples, tieing in stories and themes between songs ('Empire State of Mind' then 'Welcome to New York City' followed by 'Run This City'). The mixtapes are very technical and execute all elements of a "Mixtape" from mixing, blending, remixes, cutting, scratching & beat juggling but never taking away focus on the Kanye or Jay's tracks and keeping the listener entertained. In short you can tell hear the time and preparation that was put into it (3 weeks on the Kanye mix and 2 months for Jay's) but you can either take my word or download them.

Check out: The Best of Kanye West here.

So who do you think did the better Mixtape? Spoonz or M-Rock? Who do you think would win in a DJ battle?  Shout out your favorite mix or DJ in the comment box below.

PL

So this is a follow up to the: Homemade Gourmet Naan-za post I did not to long ago. Usually when I have to buy the sausages, meguez & mushrooms for the Naan-za's we usually only have to use half of the packages. Seeing as I like to pretend that I operate my kitchen like a restaurant obviously there is no waste. So this is fairly easy recipe to make pasta from scratch using a lot of the ingredients from the previous recipe.

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So it's New Years Eve and you've got all the details in place for you party but then you realize you don't have music. Do you really want to toss on the radio? Or have to listen to Girl Talk non-stop again? If you need a break from the Pop music and someones outdated iTunes playlist I've got you covered with a few mixes I made this year:

'Late Nights & Early Sunrises' was one of my favorites this year. I usually post my stuff on Soundcloud but couldn't since I was having issues getting clearance on a track. Anyways you can stream it above or download it here.

Here are the other two that I can recommend:

Montréal je t'aime by parvezlakha

Peanut Butta Lova by parvezlakha

Happy New Years!!

PL

It's hard not to get excited when a culinary genius/mad man like Anthony Bourdain comes to your hometown let alone films an episode for his new show: The Layover. No shortage of awesome moments in this adventure. You might want to save this for later on, unless your office doesn't mind you watching 43 minutes of tv right now.

On another food/city/geek tip I am hoping Mr. Bourdain hits up London & Vancouver, pretty curious what his thoughts are.

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First off I have to say that this is not a "Top 10", "Best of...", or anything of that nature. These are a list of albums and EP's that I enjoyed over the past year or might have just discovered as of recent. Also my good friend Craig at Melody Mentor was wondering what albums I liked since I hating on a couple of artists this year. So if you got a iTunes gift card, or are looking for music to entertain guests here is my assortment of albums for you to peep.

SBTRKT - SBTRKT

This albums smashed it in my opinion and was a complete surprise for me. I had been following SBTRKT doing his singles and remixes for a couple of years but would always a hard time getting into most of his stuff as it would flirt into dub-step territory (as some of you may know I am not a huge fan). So when I was doing my rounds of finding music I stumbled on: Ready, Set Loop and holy f**k did this track melt my brain!! I must've had it on repeat a gazillion times during Grand Prix Weekend in Montreal. All that said with: Ready, Set, Loop I was eager and hungry for his album. The self titled album did not disappiont from the opener Heatwave you can tell it is building up something great with those Timbaland-esque drums. SBTRKT balanced smooth R&B (with the help of Little Dragon, Jessie Ware & Sampha) with amazing synth's & and hard hitting bass. SBTRKT no doubt kicked opened the door and ushered his brand of UK Funky/UK Garage/post dub-step sound for America.

SBTRKT Feat Sampha - Something Goes Right

SBTRKT Feat Sampha - Ready, Set, Loop

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So the last few weeks I've been playing around in the kitchen to come up with the best Naan-za. What is a Naan-za?! It is what is sounds like pizza using naan bread, best of all it only takes 30 minutes to bake so whether you're doing a date night or having a friends over last minute. This is quite easily the best tasting & fastest pizza you can make without using any odd ingredients.

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It's been a while since I last shared some tracks with everyone. This time I around I wanted the mix to have a radio show feel, jumping from vocal bits to the more "bleeps & bloops" or just flipping it up the sound and going in a new direction and and building it up again.  So with a whopping 21 tracks (this is the first time I've mixed this many tracks) under 1 hour (a nice little blend of UK Garage & Deep House) here is the first, but definitely not the last in the: Peanut Butta Lova series. Big thanks to Doctor Klein & the Drop Box Crew for introducing me to a few of these tracks.

Enjoy the mix and feel free to download, comment & share it with your friends, family, co-workers, gym spotter, parole officer, dog walker, etc.

Peace P

Peanut Butta Lova by parvezlakha

Tracklisting

Ben Sun - Salty tears

Megadon Betamax - Don't Ask (Rocco Raimundo Extended Re-Work)

Mosca - Tilt Shift (Julio Bashmore Remix)

The Magician feat Jeppe - I Don't Know What to Do (Second Date Remix)

Azari & III - Reckless With Your Love (Hoff Do-Over Blend)

Black Box - I Don't Know Anybody Else (Hurley Deep House Mix)

DJ T. - City Life feat. Cari Golden (Maceo Plex Remix)

Boris Dlugosch Pres Booom - Keep Pushin (Orignial Mix)

Urulu - Not the Only One

Legowelt - El Horizonte 

Tensnake - Something About You

Bart B More & Harvard Bass - The Funky One

2562 - Wasteland (Head High Remix)

Presk - Love Again

Walton - 808 Vybzin

2562 - Aquatic Family Affair (Extended Re-Cut)

ZZT - Zzafrika (Crowdpleaser Dub)

Urulu - Rescue You

Maya Jane Coles - Beat Faster

Octo Octa - I'm Trying