Video

Directed by Mr. Ben Fries.

RIP MJ

So my mom called me in tears today to tell me the news. We have lots of happy memories of dancing to Michael Jackson records in the Millhiser house. In fact, I have a scar from the time I fell during a solo dance session to "Beat It" on my dad's speakers (they were big, my parents had left the room) and busted my forehead open, Age 3, 1985 (Mom?). My parents actually got to see him play live three times - twice on the Victory tour and once on the Bad tour where they bought my sister and I matching shirts which we wore to the shreds, literally.

In HG! Alex and I, like many people we know, reference "Off The Wall" and "Thriller" often. Those drums! Those string arrangements! And those fucking guitars! CHRIST! It's PERFECT! I sincerely believe that nobody will ever top the truly magical perfection painstakingly put to tape by the dream team that made those records: Michael, Rob Temperton (ex Heatwave dude, superstar songwriter) and, of course, Mr. Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedien and the countless session players (Toto, Brothers Johnson, etc.). Alex and I have both spent way too much of our lives trying to figure how and why, technically, those records sound so good and, unfortunately, according to Mr Swedien in his book and numerous posts to the gear-nerd blog gearslutz, it seems to be a result of sincere otherworldly talent, which we lack.

So, this is getting long and I could go on and on. But here's to Michael. One of our heroes, and I'm sure one of yours too...Nick

Jerry v. MSTRKRFT & John Legend

As you already know, we tend to get pretty giddy when videos of our buddy Jerry show up on the YouTube. Here, our favorite drummer-to-the-stars sits in with Mister Krift and John Legend to play the lovely song "Heartbreaker." No one handed drum fills here, but just a generally great and understated performance by a seemingly incongruous cast of characters...Nick

New 12"

After a long, long wait, we're finally putting out our second original 12", "I Will Come Back." We're giving away the 320mp3 OVER HERE. Full art vinyl is on the way and in the meantime we're sending a limited set of white labels over to Turntable Lab NYC for giveaway today. There's a sweet video on the way too..Alex

hand made

Stevie's new drum machine, he hand made it when he wasnt busy keeping the DFA Studio humming or building other awesome things. Kick rivals an 808...Alex

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

New HG! 12"

Dubplate...

...and the the beautiful old Neumann lathe on which it was cut...

...Nick

Jay Stay Paid

Our hero Pete Rock has compiled a new album of unreleased songs by our other hero J Dilla. We just downloaded it on iTunes and we're smiling ear to ear, banging our hands on the table, and nodding our heads heavily. Every once in a while, Alex pops up from his laptop, makes a smooshy face and let's out a loud, high pitched "Ooooooooooooh!" or "Mmmmmmm!" It's good. Treat yourself to a copy...Nick

EDIT: Holy shit. It's so good.

Record Library

Quest from The Roots has more records than you.