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08.14.06 - The Kids Love Mean Deep! 08.14.06 - International Fountain Gets International DJ Mix! 08.09.06 - Mean Deep hard at work in the funketabla lab! 08.05.06 - Video, Mean Deep live at The War Room, August 17, 2005 08.04.06 - Mean Deep, the Best Music on the Royal Argosy Cruise Liner ever! The Kids Love Mean Deep! On May 15th and 16th Mean Deep performed at McCaw Hall at Seattle Center for two thousand + kids and other adventurous people. This was part of the amazing Seattle International Childrens Festival. BTW: Kidsfest, as we affectionately call it, and Seattle International Nights, the festivals nighttime series for adults, are some of Seattle's best kept secrets; this festival may even very well be the best festival in the city in terms of overall artistic quality. So we were honored to be a part of it. We were doing double duty as MCs and performers in the International Samplers for the festival. This is the second year that we have done this. We performed three times during the festival. The first time was with a group of performers from the area in the "Viva Puget Sound Sampler." The groups featured included Cambalache, a salsa group, Tangoing, a group featuring some of the top tango dancers in the area, and Bailadores de Bronce, a mexican folkloric dance group. We perfromed the next day in the "World of Music" sampler that featured Iraqi singer Fawzi al-Aiedy and his group, the high energy polish neo-traditional music of the Warsaw Village Band, and awesome afro-beat jazz of the ten piece Gangbe Brass band who came straight out of Benin, West Africa. We also performed in the World of Dance sampler which featured the Argentinian beats of Malambo, the Mongolian throat singing and dancing of Tumen Ekh, and the high energy hip hop stylings of the b-boys and b-girls of ISH from Holland. Mean Deep was well received, in fact our special performances of "Washington State" may indeed have received the loudest applause. But don't just take our word for it check out these comments from kids who attended the "World of Music" sampler: "I really like Mean Deep because of Washington song that was the best"--Matias "I liked Mean Deep songs, they were awesome. Thank you for all you done [sic] for us. I had a great time." --Melissa "I really liked the show Mean Deep because I was born in Washington and it is sort of like an honor to Washington."--Jessica "I really liked Mean Deep because he made lots of new beets [sic] that I had never herad [sic] before and that was really cool and new for me!!! Thank you!!!" --Swapenpreet "I really like the Mean Deep because my favorite song was the Washington naming the states and did kind of a hip-hop in it and showed us all the bands and thanks for all the activities and fun I really enjoyed it thanks very much!!!!" --Breanna "I really liked Mean Deep. I couldn't believe that you made a song out of the cities. It was awesome. I loved it!!!!"-- Bordeaux "I loved the song Mean Deep you giys [sic] really practiced you giys [sic] really did excellent really nice." --Angela "I had a great time the Mean Deep were really fun, and I had a wonderful time. I hope I get to go here again" --Kaitlynn "I loved the Mean Deep band because it was entertaining. It was very fun there!" --Alexa International Fountain Gets International DJ Mix! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Anita Darbo darbo@funketabla.com www.funketabla.com INTERNATIONAL FOUNTAIN GETS INTERNATIONAL DJ MIX Ongoing | Free | Everyday at 11AM, 3PM & 7PM (SEATTLE, August 13th 2006) In recognition of the award-winning Fest?l series of cultural festivals at Seattle Center a continuous multi-cultural/ International DJ Mix has been commissioned to play in the International Fountain at Seattle Center. The mix was designed by multi-talented musician, producer and DJ JamesWhetzel, and features contemporary music from Algeria, France, Vietnam, Croatia, the UK/India, Guinea, and Washington State. The mix includes a special remix of the song "Luna Y Sol" by pan-Latin artist Manu Chao, a remix of the song "Balle" by Panjabi Bhangra superstar Sukshinder Shinda, a dance floor ready remix of Anacortes' own Vela Luka Croatian Dance Ensemble, a remix of Vietnamese Classical music performed by the Hue Traditional Arts Troupe, and a hip hop remix of Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va." And all this in 6 minutes 21 seconds. The DJ mix created by James Whetzel had water choreographed to fit it by Las Vegas based water programmers Wet Design.This is the first new choreographed music/ water program for the International Fountain in five years. This is the sixth choreographed music/ water program put together for the International Fountain. The last choreographed music/ water program was the Northwest Rock 'n Roll program put together in honor of the EMP's Grand Opening in 2001. Whetzel says, "Seattle has always been a multi-cultural city, I think a lot of people have obliviously thought of this aspect of the city as a curiosity. The reality is that it is an integral part of life here, and a source of tremendous creative vitality! I think the commissioning of this DJ mix is important because it gives recognition to that vitality and strength." James Whetzel is a multi-instrumentalist musician, singer, producer, and DJ. The two down-tempo albums he has produced "Sum" and "CapitolHill: Secret Tracks" charted on College Radio in 2001 and 2003. These days the light at his studio is staying on late at night as he is feverishly working to finish a new album for release on Olin Place/Funketabla records in December 2006. As a vocalist, sarodist, guitarist, tabla player, and beat maker he has graced the stages of most of the clubs in Seattle and all of the major festivals in the city, including Bumbershoot and the Seattle International Children's festival. Together with Deepayan Acharjya and DJ Gringo Star Whetzel produced the successful club night Tandav which ran for a year in Seattle. James Whetzel has performed internationally in places as diverse as Paris, Ravangla and Calcutta. The International DJ mix created by James Whetzel can be heard at 11AM, 3PM and 7PM everyday in the International Fountain at Seattle Center. Mean Deep hard at work in the funketabla lab! This bit of news is for those of you who have been asking us when and where we are doing the next Mean Deep show. Let the the truth be told! We are taking a break from our regular gigging to work on producing a new Mean Deep album. We have been putting in overtime hours working super hard. We have finished a track called "Old School Shree" that mixes Indian Classical music with old school hip hop. Also in the bag is a shockingly poppy, bata inspired break beat track called "Gotta Scene." Two other tracks are near to be finished. The first is called "Lindjo," which is an exciting remix of some hard-hitting Croatian music by Vela Luka Croatian Dance ensemble. The second is "Give Me Love!" a funky bit of Rai inspired electronica which has a the special addition of some killer Persian flavor coming in from the singing and violin playing of our friend Bobek Salehi. There are 16 more tracks in process.??As for the individual musical lives of Mean Deep, Shri Deepayan is developing some top secret musical software that allows him unprecedented new levels of musical manipulation of loops and effects. Deepayan is dead set to make his laptop as cool as his tabla. Word on the street is that Shri Deepayan may be planning a semi-secret show to test some of this stuff out.??And as for the James Whetzel scene. Baba James is working on 15 tracks. He has just completed a version of a bit of Electro Guiro or Electro Agbacha called "Everything Strange." He is also remastering "Washington State" for exquisite punchiness and remixing "Capitol Hill" for extra cleverness. There are also a pair of tabla-poetry driven tracks well under way; one is called "Hello," and one is called "Goodbye." Much much more to come from the Mean Deep lab soon.? Video, Mean Deep live at The War Room, August 17, 2005 Ladies and Gents here is a link to demo video put together by gALLIxSEE media from footage of the ::Mean Deep:: show August 17, 2005. We did rock them well if I don't say! Special thanks to www.gallizseemedia.com Here's the link to the video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2964515510092992099&pr=goog-sl Mean Deep, the Best Music on the Royal Argosy Cruise Liner ever! Here's the story Mean Deep did a big show last night, July 27th 2006, on the Royal Argosy Cruise Liner. We came with two dhols, tabla, sarod, darbouka, two laptops, our voices and DJ gear. We did four sets in four hours and kept changing the music to keep it fresh. We pride ourselves on not playing the same songs over and over, and frankly we would get really bored if we did that.??The first mate, the bartender and the crew members said we were the best music on the Royal Argosy Cruise Liner ever! Yes that is ever as in ever! Alright! ??This was a private show, but of course we look forward to rocking you all in a great big public show in the near future. In any case there is definitely one in the works for December which will be the Mean Deep CD release party and the James Whetzel CD release party too! More on that as it gets closer. We hope to rock you like a cruise liner! |
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