Hello and welcome to another special edition of Wednesdays With Lazerbeak. Just got back from a glorious vacation to Cancún which is why this blog is one day tardy. Man are you in for it though: This may go down as the most informative and action packed post that I will single handedly ever create! So much stuff happening. I have to start by showcasing my first ever music video one more time. Here is “Land’s End” off of Legend Recognize Legend.
I still can’t believe how well that one turned out. SO much insane hard work went into going from something like this just a few months ago:
To the end result that you see in the finished product. Man I love my team. Huge enormous thank yous to Joel Anderson, Sara Jean Cough, Cory Davis, Joe Tipre, Aaron Anderson, Eric Carlson, and Optimus. I literally drove down to Chicago for one day and then these people spent months creating something so mind bogglingly awesome! Couldn’t be more pumped. Plus, that’s just the first of ten videos! So crazy.
Which brings me to my next informative point: The Legend Recognize Legend Pre-Order (one more final rant). Never in your long legged life have you seen a pre-order like this. And Sunday is the final day to get said order in and gain access to all the immensely cool things that come with it. Allow me to break it down for you. Here is what you will be receiving in addition to the autographed album:
PRIVATE WEBCAST
You’ll get access to a password protected webcast that I’ll be airing from my studio basement (the Legend Lair) on Wednesday 9/22 at 8:00pm Central. I’ll be answering any and all questions you may have, as well as performing new tracks from the album, breaking down how one creates a musical Lava Banger, breaking down how one drinks a liquid Lava Banger, dropping some new unheard beats, and kicking it with some of the Doomtree homies. Dessa’s gonna be there to do a stripped down version of our duet off the album as well. This will rule.
DVD
We made 10 ridiculous videos to accompany the 10 songs on the album, and they are included with the physical purchase of the album at no extra cost. Plus, I can vouch for the fact that they are all extremely awesome. Check out this promo video to get a sneak peek at what we’re dealing with:
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14573683[/vimeo]BLOWOUT CONTEST
By pre-ordering you will be automatically entered into a contest to win a very VIP trip to the Doomtree Blowout at First Ave in December. The winner will be drawn during the webcast next week and will receive: two passes to the Blowout, a backstage tour, a room at a luxury hotel in Downtown Minneapolis, plus a spending spree of one hundred and thirty dollars and sixty four cents to help with travel or bar tabs. Unreal!
The pre-order ends this Sunday the 19th at midnight. You can go HERE to check it all out. I know we mention it a lot, but by pre-ordering you really do allow us to continue to put records out on a constant basis, plus you give us a chance to compete against these bigger labels when it comes to first week sales and exposure. Anyways, thanks for dealing with my constant yammerings about all this stuff. I certainly do appreciate all of the support more than you may ever know.
———
OK, one more cool thing coming up. We’re gonna be doing a special early LRL album listening and video viewing party this Tuesday (9/21) at Honey in Minneapolis, one week before the record drops. We did this same thing for Paper’s album a few months back and it was actually really fun. The whole thing pops off around 10:00pm and we’ll be bringing in a big projector to give a kind of movie premiere vibe to all the music videos we’ll be playing. Come through if you’re in the area (205 E. Hennepin Ave).
———
So now that I’ve got all that taken care of, let’s get into some action packed Piranha 3D pics! Plain Ole Bill and I had the extreme pleasure of taking Dessa out to her first ever 3D movie experience last week. While I would have preferred that experience to have happened at a slightly classier film (like Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs or something), this was our only option and I feel we made the most of it. Here is a picture of some Girls Gone Wild getting eaten up by three dimensional piranhas:
And here is a picture of Bill and Dessa sporting those sweet Real D shades by the movie poster after the showing. Full disclosure: Dessa did not take these glasses off for the duration of the day. I think we may have actually converted her!
Pretty awesome. The next day I took off on an incredible Couples Retreat style vacation to the beautiful relaxing beaches of Cancún with my wifepiece Brittany and our dear friends Jeff and Alison. This trip still lacked the bad Vince Vaughn jokes and creepy yoga teachers of the movie Couples Retreat, but was more in line geographically to that film than our Couples Retreat trip to Eau Clair a few months back with MJ and Liz (no LARPing this time though, unfortunately). Here are some of the highlights:
We got upgraded to Economy Plus on our flight out, which meant five inches of extra leg room and a screening of the new Karate Kid!
Possibly the best part of the trip. I’ve never been a huge margarita guy, but these strawberry joints that our guy Rasec at the hotel beach bar was serving up were out of this world! Sidenote: this easily became the most expensive part of the trip.
Day view. We totally filmed a couple new Corona commercials while we were out there. 2011 is the year of the endorsement!
Night view. Perfecto.
I’ve tried for years now, but I just don’t think I was ever meant to rock sunglasses. I get super uncomfortable and can’t help but make this face the second I put them on.
Before a night on the town. Mas margs por favor.
Fútbol Americano is actually getting pretty popular down in Mexico! We were in Cancún a few years ago on our honeymoon and it seemed like the NFL was really trying to make a push down there. It appears that it may be paying off, as they aired a lot of the first week games at our hotel en español. I know you’re probably not supposed to watch football during a trip like this, but come on. It was the first week! Although I do kind of regret watching that Vikes game now on the first night. So brutal.
Did a little bit of comparing and contrasting for research purposes only. Pacifico easily wins for best can design, although I continue to be a Modelo type of guy in the long run.
Speaking of cans, on our way back Jeff totally got busted trying to bring back our last six pack of Tecate. This security dude thought it was kind of hilarious though, so at least we had a good laugh about it.
Such a great trip. The best of times with the best of friends. It was so nice to take a quick break from works stuff before everything gets totally crazy with this album coming up.
I’m home now though and back on my serious grind like never before. No grind time, no shine time as I believe it has been said before. I’ve got another practice tonight with the Ensemble Of Legendz for this release show, and if it’s anything like last week’s practice we are gonna be in great shape. You really don’t want it with the Ensemble Of Legendz. Look at how pro DeVon looks right here. The man is not afraid to seriously vamp out on you! Tickets are available online HERE for the release party on Oct 1st. I really feel like this one is gonna be an extra special night.
——-
Final informative rant of the day. Sims, Mike, Cecil, Paper, and I will be playing outside at the Lake Harriet Bandshell for free this Friday night (9/17), plus there will be a big screening of Back To The Future afterwards. Bonus! Should be a blast, hope to see some of you down there. And just in case you missed it, here is the hilarious promo video Ander put together for the show. Rap From The Future:
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/14730700[/vimeo]——-
Well, there it is. If you’re reading this you have officially made it through the longest, most informative, action packed blog post I have ever had the pleasure of writing. Thank you for your patience. I’ll leave you with a couple awesome Bonus Jams from a few new albums that just came out yesterday. The first is by Black Milk off of his brand new Album Of The Year (love that title). He’s one of my favorite current producers and the dude can actually spit a little something too. Plus nobody makes their drums thump even close to as hard as he does. Really liking the whole album after one listen through. Sounds phenomenal in the Camry.
As you can hear, the air horn is not dead yet! I love it. Final Bonus Jam comes courtesy of Bilal off his new album Airtight’s Revenge. The last real album he put out was almost nine years ago when he had linked up with Dre for a couple singles and appeared to be the second coming of Prince. He went through the whole major label drama and got his last album shelved after it leaked. This is his triumphant return and it’s great to see him back. Still have to digest this one a bit more, but so far so good. One of the more unique voices out there in popular music in my humble opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ag1vn3gjo
——-
Alright, it’s a wrap. I hope you have an incredible week. Make sure to cop that pre-order HERE by Sunday, and I’ll see you next Tuesday for sure big duns!
— Beak