What to do when Lil Wayne’s song gets pulled from the net? Cover it and assemble an incredibly talented, inspiring group of people to make a video that’s proven to be a one-take shot at fame. A burgeoning New York rapper with some serious style, Nyle is suddenly the talk of the town, with several upcoming shows sure to be filled with record label A&R types.

The magic is not only in the video’s star, however. Take a peak at the clip and see some other excellent performers, as well as an NYU student/director who is sure to be getting offers to make bigger and better videos.

Nyle “Let The Beat Build” from Nyle on Vimeo.

Win a Sansa slotRadio Player and Feature Your Favorite Music Here on Matador Nights!

Check out this article on Matador Goods: Gear Review + Giveaway: Sansa slotRadio Player

No lie. With less than 50 words, you can win a super compact mp3 player that doubles as a radio and holds 1,000 songs.

Photo: tinkerroll21

Write the title and artist of the song you choose – one that’s near and dear to your heart for its ability to inspire you to travel – or one that calls you to a place out there in the world or back home again. Briefly explain to us how and why it moves you and leave that explanation in the comments field in the article linked above.

That’s it!

You have one week. Hey, that’s less than 8 words a day you have to write!

Top entrants will have their words featured here along with downloadable mp3’s of their picks. Share the music you love and win.

Feature photo by flattop341

This week, our mp3 is Huye de Mi by Afro-Peruvian great Eva Ayllón.

Huye de Mi translates to Escape from Me. This is a song of lost love, but think about it as an escape from a place or a way of thinking that you want to be free of – if you can’t speak Spanish, that is.

If you can speak Spanish, you’ll realize that this song carries the weight of regret mixed with relief that we so often feel at the end of a relationship. Complex and truthful, it is a song about moving on.

Now motivate!

Feature Photo by torres21

Festivals like Wacken and Hellfest increase in popularity every year, with this year’s Wacken festival selling out six months in advance.

The increasing fanbase and skyrocketing festival numbers prove heavy metal really is the beast that cannot die. If you’re a metalhead losing your festival virginity, then heed these 12 survival tips from seasoned festival goers:

Wear steel-toed boots.

Photo: j. botter

Metal festivals are not the occasion for your beach flip-flops or strappy heels. Expect to be stomped on by angry Germans– you need to stomp right back.

Use the pay showers.

Photo: Ian Wilson

Most festival campsites provide port-a-loos and free shower facilities, which quickly become cesspools of the worst kind of human filth. Pay showers cost anything from 50c to 2 Euros, but they’re definitely worth the investment. Alternatively, don’t shower at all. Trust me, no one will notice.

Mark your campsite with a flag or banner.

Photo: madmetal

Several thousand identical dome tents spread out across a field means one wrong turn and you’re lost for hours. Each year we paint a unique festival banner to mark our campsite. Drape it over our tent or jam it in the campervan window, and voila! Banners incite discussion and/or criticism from your camping neighbours… and on hot days, they serve as excellent makeshift loincloths.

Learn the lingo.

Because ‘cool’ just isn’t metal enough.

Metalheads invent their own slang words. Nothing is ever ‘cool’; it’s ‘kreig‘ or ‘kvlt‘ or ‘nekro’. If a metal band is particularly admired, they’re considered ‘tr00‘ or ‘epic’ or even ‘epically brutal.’ And whenever you greet someone you must – and this is very important – string together an impressive set of adjectives: ‘Most grymm and metal hails to you!’

Throw the goat.

Photo: notsogoodphotography

If conversation fails you, throw the goat. Throwing the goat involves folding down your middle two fingers and thumb down and letting your pinkie and index finger form the grymm goat horns. The goat is the universal sign of the metalhead. Use it incorrectly at your peril.

Arrange meeting places for your friends.

Photo: cgo

Finding your buddies at a metal festival isn’t as simple as scanning the crowd for that one long-haired dude wearing a black t-shirt.

Arranging a central meeting place and time means no one gets locked out of the campervan because you got separated in the mosh pit. And please make your meeting place more specific than ‘by the beer tent’ because there are usually 10,000 metalheads hanging out by the beer tent waiting for their friends.

Be prepared for late night tent visitors.

Photo: harmonicagoldfish

People drink beer at metal festivals. A LOT of beer. And metalheads are friendly drunks. It never occurs to them that the person sleeping in the nearby tent might not actually want to join their late-night metal karaoke sing-a-long. Be prepared with a stern voice and a steel-cap boot to discourage unwanted late night visitors.

Pack for extreme weather.

Photo: russelljsmith

Extreme music festivals attract extreme weather patterns. Prepare for torrential downpours and sweltering, dusty heat, often in the same afternoon.

Spare tent pegs: Bring them.

Photo: Ian Wilson

I don’t know why, but camping metalheads cannot hold on to their tent pegs. Usually, they’ll borrow yours. Last festival, we went through 15 tent pegs on a two-person tent.

Remember: Fashion matters.

Photo: timparkinson

Metalheads pay almost as much attention to their clothing as runway models. If you wear a t-shirt displaying the logo of a false-metal or non-metal band, you will be the laughing stock of the entire festival (I’ve seen it happen; it’s not pretty). If you don’t know which bands are considered false-metal, you probably shouldn’t be attending a European metal-fest.

Play it safe with old classics like Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian and Judas Priest, or opt for underground bands with unreadable logos. No Emo t-shirts.

Lift crowd surfers with your legs, not your back.

Photo: chadlewis76

If your idea of dancing consists of elbowing your way to the front of the pit and throwing your innocent body into the mash of headbangers, you’ll be broken and bruised by the end of the festival. Minimize your discomfort by looking after your back.

We’re all metalheads here (Don’t be a dickhead).

You’re at the festival to enjoy the music and make new friends. So is everyone else.

Don’t be the person who spoils the concert for someone else. Consider your neighbours in the campground. Don’t host a banjo sing-along at four in the morning or decide to burn plastic drinking-horns on your campfire (they stink). If you see someone fall over in the mosh pit, pick them up again. Shout your new friends a beer. Hug strangers.

If you join the festival with the right attitude, you’ll come away with the most grymm experiences and the kreigest new friends!

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Check out Matador’s favourite world music festivals here. And for other summer music festival tips, check out this article.

Photo: * etoile

In a New York Times article from September, 2008, food critic Michelle Green writes of one such meal when she partook of hairy crab on a visit to Shanghai.

Is it the fact that you choose your hairy crab live and are thus assured of its freshness? Is the name itself, the blatantly sexual sound of it, part of the reason that foodies worldwide proclaim its virtues as a heavenly, must-try food?

Green and her friends did everything right. They chose a restaurant – Wang Bao He – much loved among hairy crab fanatics. They questioned the waitress to make sure they were ordering the most succulent preparation. They ordered the wine that is said to be the perfect compliment.

“The smell,” said Terry, “is like dirty river water.” Under the carapaces lurked gelatinous black deposits; instead of sweet meat, we discovered stringy, bland flesh.

Photo: Dennis Wong

Apparently the hairy crab has fallen victim to not so stringent pollution regulations, the market for it rife with counterfeiters.

Don’t ask me how to counterfeit a hairy crab. I couldn’t begin to tell you.

Air New Zealand is to begin offering the “Air New Zealand Matchmaking Flight,” according to the New Zealand Herald and a website created by the airline. The stated goal is to “help single Americans find New Zealand dates with a themed flight headed toward a dual hemisphere singles party.” The maiden (maybe inaugural is more appropriate here) voyage is set to launch in October.

Is the global financial crisis affecting the Kiwis so profoundly that they have to rob the US of its richest eligible singles? Who else would be spending the nearly $800 for the ticket?

Photo: the half-blood prince

The tagline, apparently targeting the helplessly brainwashed, straight and desperate American masses with a grand to burn (consider the cocktails) is “How far will you go to find the one?”

Perhaps a more accurate question would be, “How pissed will you be when you spend $800 and travel half a world on an endless international flight to find that you can’t get laid here either and you’re not getting home anytime soon?”

Photos and Feature Photo: the jyan

Indeed, for those who find themselves having a terrible time, it’s far worse than a blind date in the ol’ hometown. Here there will be no escape from the glaring failure as Sandra skips off with a more sex-worthy catch and you wait for another overnight flight back to L.A. during which there will be only cocktail service and a courtesy blanket to comfort you.

The whole thing smacks of a reality show.

About the only guaranteed positive is that this may be the only international fight you’ll ever have been on without a relentlessly sobbing child.

In the true traveling spirit, Blind Pilot planned a tour that spanned from Canada to Mexico by bike. That tour was cut short when their bikes got ripped off in California.

They just completed a second tour that spanned the West coast’s Highway 1. Playing wherever they were welcome and some planned dates in between, the tour was an adventure that garnered a lot of attention for the band.

Photo and Feature Photo: mlindema

It would be easy to see this mode of touring as a gimmick, but Blind Pilot has the musical fortitude to back it up.

I heard the story on NPR.

Now on tour by van, you can check out what’s going on with Blind Pilot at their official website.

San Francisco’s DNA Lounge offers everything, it seems. A full service kitchen serves Mexican food, while computers are made available throughout the club that features a wireless network as well. There is a main stage and a second stage that boasts its own sound system, and there are three bars.

Photo and feature photo of Bohemian Carnival at DNA Lounge: zemistor

Operating as DNA since November of 1985, the club has had a number of notable owners including Rob Schneider, but is now in the hands of the tech-savvy and fascinating Jamie Zawinski. (Blog)

DNA hosts all sorts of events from fashions shows to dance parties to live music.

Photo of Booty – Smashup Bootleg Party: flawedartist

Live events are webcast in audio and video. If you’d like to have a look at what’s going on in there, you can here. Any time the club is open, 10 video cameras inside go live in rotation over the web and you can hear the audio from the sound system.

Where else can you preview a night out like this?

375 Eleventh Street
San Francisco

When Reverend Run speaks, you better listen, homeboy. This 1984 Run DMC track seems prophetic with the current economic situation and the swine flu:

Hard times! Spreading just like the flu. Watch out, homeboy, don’t let it catch you.

If you’re down on your luck, this song just might help pick you up a bit. The track is honest — they speak from the heart (and their guts):

Hard times can take you on a natural trip, So keep your balance, and don’t you slip. Hard times is nothing new on me, I’m gonna use my strong mentality.

If that don’t pump you up, they get Rocky on you at the end:

I’m gonna keep on fighting till my very last breath.

So, chin up. Keep on keepin’ on. We’ll get through it.

Photo of Pakirama courtesy of aloshbennett

The Indian rock scene is on the rise. The enthusiasm that surrounds rock gigs in the Indian cities and the new magazines and the pubs (including the Hard Rock Café) coming up have more and more sponsors sitting up and taking notice.

What may surprise you even more is the sheer variety of cultures that just come together and explode, opening myriad avenues for experimentation and hybridization in the music scene. This is bound to happen, after all, with the country’s tradition of classical and folk music and their great exposure to the rock music legends of the West, Indian musicians have a diverse heritage to call their own.

Silk Route’s Dooba Dooba

This is a phenomenon that’s urban-centric. Most of the audiences are city people who visit concerts and live music venues to access these bands.

Even as the talent overwhelms local music fans, the original bands face many roadblocks on their way to recognition. The audience demand for familiar, played out, classic rock covers could easily crush a band’s original spirit. Couple this with a low market demand and you have a recipe for weekends of unenthusiastic renditions of warmed over Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden.

Thankfully, the World Wide Web has been a great resource in the dissemination of Indian Rock, and bands are able to reach wider audiences through websites and MySpace.

There are many amazing, original bands that have had to struggle and keep a balance between playing covers and originals for years before becoming as big as they are now: bands such as Them Clones, MotherJane, The Superfuzz, Thermal and a Quarter, Pentagram, Orange Street, Zero and especially Parikrama.

Then there are those that fuse Indian languages and rock music so well: Euphoria, Indian Ocean and Silk Route, replete with an audience that truly appreciates these original artists.

Photo of Cassini’s Division courtesy of sayamindu

It’s becoming clear that many fans are getting sick of the incessant recycling of cover songs and waking up to the amazing work being done by a handful of original bands. Some of the best original upcoming and established bands include Cassini’s Division, Pin Drop Violence andDemonic Resurrection

Pin Drop Violence at the Independence Rock Festival

Another personal favorite is the Khadki Junction Blues, who unfortunately aren’t together anymore, but have some brilliant work.

Khadki Junction Blues show their sense of humor through the blues

With the support of magazines such as the Rock Street Journal and more recently, Rolling Stone India, more and more of these bands are coming into the limelight.

Although underground is nowhere near being mainstream, it is heartening to see the kind of support the Indian audience is capable of providing. This support is more than evident at rock fests happening in the major cities. Great Indian Rock , Independence Rock, Campus Rock Idols and the June Rock Out are a few of the best known. These festivals see a lot of talented bands doing their stuff live for ever increasing crowds of enthusiastic young Indian rockers and metal-heads.

There is much to be said about the contemporary Indian rock and metal scene; providing a comprehensive overview in one place is difficult, and I can only call this an introduction.

This is a jumping off point for you to discover a whole new world of alternative, crazy, supremely enjoyable rock and metal music where you might not have been looking for it until now.

It looks like all the years of perseverance might just pay off…take heart, all you original Indian artists and rock enthusiasts, there is hope yet.

Community Connection

Interested in more metal around the world? Check out the worldwide black metal scene.