The Bag Messenger BlogBag Design and Urban Living

Very few things get weekends as wild as a good three day weekend and summer sunshine. Here are a few events going on that get our stamp of approval.  Happy fourth!

-The Bag Messenger

The Lyrics To Go All Star Party 
(Special Birthday Celebration For Tamir Z. Brown) 

Hosted By: 
Greg Nice (Nice N Smooth)

DJ Sets By: 
J.Period (Truelements Music)
Cosmo Baker & 4th Pyramid (The Sheen Bros) 
The X-Factor Boogie Blind (X-Ecutioners) 
DJ Chela 

and also...
Suprise Special Guest DJ From Philly!!!

Opening Set By: 
DJ Suga Ray x The Yume Experience

This is your insider's guide to Ed Blammo's EPIC FREEDOM WEEKEND. Celebrate your independence in the city that wrote the book on it. This one's for the people.

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Friday July 2 - HOLIDAY WEEKEND KICKOFF @ PYT

DJ Image and Ed Blammo are starting your weekend off proper with an epic dose of hip-hop, dancehall & club classics at PYT. You never know what's going to happen when this dynamic duo gets together. Expect the unexpected. Unless you expect to shake your booty.

DJ Image & Ed Blammo
Friday July 2 @ PYT
10-2 / No Cover
$1 drinks till 11

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Saturday July 3 - WYLD THANGZ @ M-Room

For this special one-time event, Ed Blammo is teaming up with DJ Senor Senor, Tonymont (Tigebeats) and Dennis Wolffang (Night Train) at the M Room for a night filled with dance jams of the highest caliber. Indie, Pop, Rock, Disco. Anything goes where the Wyld Thangz be. Get there early for FREE PBR and Vodka drinks from 9-11. Blammo + Tigerbeats + Night Train = a rager of epic proportions. Don't miss it.

Wyld Thangz
Saturday July 3 @ M-Room
10-2 / $5 Cover
FREE PBR & Vodka from 9-11
Pre-party BBQ @ Penn Treaty Park

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Sunday July 4 - LOCALS+ONLY @ PYT

Party bros Jay Yo and Ed Blammo along with the all star Locals Only family and guest selector KENNY MEEZ are getting epic this July 4th. The turntables will be set up outside along with grills, kiddie pools, super soakers and rocket popsicles. It's downright un-American to not eat a burger on the 4th of July, and we all know PYT does burgers right, so come hang with us before you hit the fireworks. Some of you lovely ladies might even score a free drink for getting in the pool. The rest of you, get there early for FREE Pina Coladas from 12-2

LOCALS+ONLY
Sunday July 4th @ PYT
2-9 / No Cover
Free Pina Coladas from 12-2

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GET UP. GET EPIC. GET FREE.

Don't sleep on West Philly! Some of the best kept secrets in the city are in this neighborhood.

On Saturday July 3rd, is the first WESTBOUND party at Upstairs at Elena's Soul Lounge, the hottest venue on Baltimore Ave. DJ lil'dave (from Illvibe Collective & Eavesdrop Radio) will be playing a top shelf mix of soulful house, afrobeat, latin grooves, funk, classics, and more.

Don't miss this!

WESTBOUND
w/ DJ lil'dave
Saturday July 3rd
Upstairs at Elena's
(4912 Baltimore Ave.)
10PM-2AM

$5 Cover

Here is a cool little video Lil Dave did to promote the event. Why can't I post it directly? I'd like to know the answer to that myself. I can however post this video of a baby dancing that may give you an idea of what to expect.

Thats right folks, the weekend of the 4th is looming in the near future. You can almost smell the lighter fluid and see the drunken patriotic flag waving from here. Here at Tucker and Bloom we are planing on getting outside for a few hours of sweet sunshine before getting back to making bags, and we have a few recipes that may keep your friends so busy they may forget about fireworks. 

-THE BAG MESSENGER

Not one to over-think party planning I have a tendency to wait for a jolt of inspiration. Being that the weather is blazing hot and  BBQ is essentially a part of the holiday I figured I would split the difference by combining spicy, cool, and smoky flavors. Specifically my plans include, smoked pork, Ceviched Shrimp, grilled corn, fruit salad, and lots of cold beer.Have a happy independence day! - David

Dry Rub for Pork

# 1/2 cup salt
# 1/4 cup pepper
# 1 Tbsp garlic powder
# 1 Tbsp oregano
# 1 Tbsp celery seed
# 1 Tbsp paprika
# 1 Tbsp chile powder

I adjust the chile powder to taste....

Rub the meat to be smoked with the dry rub, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate overnight.

Everyone has their own ideas about BBQ, and I don't profess to be any expert. That being said, the best method I have found to barbecue is all about prep.

I like to start the fire a good hour before putting the meat anywhere near the grill.  I  bank the coals to one side of the grill and place an aluminum foil envelope of hickory chips on top of the glowing coals. You should make sure the envelope has a lot of holes pricked in it, and that you soak the wood chips before hand. When it comes time the meat should be placed as far away from the fire as possible. Cover the grill and don't open it for about four hours, except to turn the meat once. After it looks done test it with a thermometer and let it cool in a brown paper bag. 

Grilled Corn

I have found that there are few things better than grilled corn. It is very good in salads, as well as other dishes, and picking it out of your teeth is the best! Here's how the secret to good bbq corn....

First you should find some good sweet corn. Sometimes its hard to tell how the corn is going to taste before hand. The best bet is to find a good farmers market, and play hard ball with one of those corn salesmen. 

Once you have your corn, place the ears (husks and all) in water for an hour.... remove the corn silk from the inside of the husks, wrap them back up, and place directly over the fire.  The corn will need to be watched fairly closely as they can easily turn into charcoal.  When the husks are blackened the corn is done.

Ceviche Shrimp

There are a bunch of different ways to go about making Ceviche shrimp, and I have to say I like most of them. Here is a recipe I found a few years ago that is easy and really tasty. Getting good shrimp is key for good ceviche...which may be a difficult thing in the near future. Enjoy this while you still can! 

2 pounds of shrimp
1 large red onion 3 medium tomatoes
3 cups of fresh orange juice (preferably use sour oranges or you can use Tropicana pure natural orange juice with no pulp)
1 cup of lemon juice (fresh squeezed lemons)
3 tablespoons of ketchup
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped cilantro or parsley
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Boil water salt and pepper in a pan. After it boils, add shrimp. Let it boil for 3 minutes (or until shrimp becomes lightly red) and remove from heat. Pour out water and let shrimp cool. Don’t let them overcook! If they are overcooked, the shrimp will be a little chewy, and no one wants to eat chewy shrimp. 

Cut the onion into long thing strips. Place them in a bowl with water and 2 tablespoons of salt and let it settle for 10 minutes. Then gently rinse with water. This will remove the bitter bite from the onion and make it sweeter.

Cut tomatoes into small squares.

In a large bowl, mix the onion, tomatoes, orange and lemon juice, ketchup, mustard, cilantro (or parsley), oil, salt and pepper. Once the shrimp has cooled, add shrimp and mix everything together. 

This week we're going to do a little repost of our interview with Ed Blammo, a man with his hands full these days. We updated the photos to reflect. Enjoy!

-THE BAG MESSENGER

Tucker & Bloom recently caught up with Ed Blammo. We got a chance to ask him about the progression of his label "Blam City" and how he got to this point in his life. Ed is hungry for sure (the night of this interview he ate diner twice) and it shows in his work ethic. 

THE BAG MESSENGER: How and when did you first get into records?

ED BLAMMO: High school, maybe sophomore year. I was singing in this really terrible weirdo hardcore band but was slowly getting into rap stuff like wu-tang. One of my best friends, Terence, sold me a CD player that could pitch-bend and make loops. I had that and a belt drive record player, so I would loop up sections of songs and play hip hop acapellas over top, like Body Movin' over Spin Doctors. Yikes right? I made an EP of my remixes and sold it to kids at my school, thought I was the man. I actually found a copy of it the other day. Wack attack for sure. Anyway, after that I pieced together a real DJ setup. I was working room service at the holiday inn and this dude Adrian that I worked with sold me my first 1200 for cheap. I was so stoked. I eventually got another 1200 and a Vestax mixer, and me and Terence started rocking house parties. I'd also DJ between bands at indie rock shows and stuff like that. I played mostly all hip-hop, funk and downtempo, but when House of Jealous Lovers by the Rapture came out it kind of flipped the script for me, and from there I learned about house and disco backwards. After that I moved to Philly, but that's a whole other story.

THE BAG MESSENGER: What is Blam City, who is involved?

ED BLAMMO: Blam City is the future of modern music. Nah, I'm just playing. Blam City is a record label that I started with my homies Josh and Aaron because we wanted to be able to show people how much good music is coming out of Philadelphia right now. Actually half of the label lives in South Korea and Japan, so Blam City is kind of a trans-continental music collective. We operate on a very small scale, but we dream big. It's all about experimenting and trying new stuff. We do things one step at a time. If it works, we roll with it. If it doesn't, whatever, we brush our shoulders off and try it again, try to stay frosty.

THE BAG MESSENGER: Any upcoming releases we can be looking forward to?

ED BLAMMO: Our first record will be out in January. It's an edit project I did with Josh from Blam City called Wicked Breaks. Its some funky 80s disco boogie type joints. There's kind of a crazy story behind it. Josh is a bike messenger, and one of his co-workers, who goes by Wicked Frame, that's where the name comes from, was trying to hustle up some money by selling a couple boxes of records, so Josh hooked it up, and we went over to the Bike Line in Chinatown and picked up 3 crates for like 15 bucks or something. People are forever trying to give us some corny old records, so I didn't really pay it any mind, but Josh spent a couple days and listened to everything. Turns out Wicked Frame broke us off with some jams, so I did a bunch of cut and paste style edits of the records Josh picked out, and we chose 3 for the first release. They're raw for sure, but I like stuff that's a little dirty and messed up.

THE BAG MESSENGER: What is the Sky Lab?

ED BLAMMO: Damn. I don't know how much I can talk about that one. Basically, Skylab is whatever you need it to be. It's a lounge, after hours party spot, spare bedroom, workshop, music studio, record label headquarters, and greenhouse all rolled into one. Tucker and Bloom even used it as an office for a few months over the summer (editors note* "thanks guys"). It's our home base. We just put in a disco ball, so, you know, we're riding.

THE BAG MESSENGER: You have been busy these days, djing around, and making music. How does your day job mesh with your passion for music?

ED BLAMMO: I love being busy, so balancing my jobs and DJing is actually a lot of fun. I have a pretty nice schedule. During the day, I teach at an after school program in west Philly. I work with about 40-50 elementary school-aged kids. We do all kinds of crazy stuff. Sports, computers, reading, art, science, math, acting, just about everything. Kids have a way of putting everything into perspective, keeping your ego in check. Like if I played a dope show the night before, and I roll into work feeling like the man, some kid will come up to me and be like "hey Mr. Ed, you're head is a weird shape," and I'm thinking "Word. Priorities. Stay focused dude." You got to keep it real around kids. They can see right through any type of fronting. They also keep me on my game, remind me that I'm not going to be DJing forever, and I should enjoy it as much as I can now, but also keep moving forward as an educator and a human being. That line of thinking applies to everything in my life, really. Do work, keep moving, and appreciate what you got.

THE BAG MESSENGER: Are you able to apply any of the same skills you learned from teaching when it comes to djing for a crowd? ( i.e lesson planning=set planning)

ED BLAMMO: That's a really good question actually. I was just thinking about this the other day, and I realized that I really do think about both in the same type of way. When I plan lessons at work I usually come up with a solid outline of what I want the students to learn and how I'm going to make it happen. I don't ever make anything too specific. If I see that the kids really latch on to something I'll expand on that or if they're not feeling it at all, then I'll switch it up on the fly. I approach DJing the same way. I do a pretty decent amount of preparation beforehand, listen to a ton of records and think about how I want the crowd to react. Then I play around with different transitions to keep things interesting and to keep myself entertained. Same as in the classroom, if the crowd is vibing to a certain sound, I'll keep it going. If people aren't getting down, then I'll change it up. I'm not saying I'm schooling people in the club or anything; I'm just trying to rock with you.

THE BAG MESSENGER: When it comes to djing out what do you bring with you to gigs? (whats in the bag).

ED BLAMMO: Man, I used to bring everything. 2 cd players, 2 turntables, 500 records, 40 CDs, a microphone, a drum machine, my buddy No Arms would bring costumes, I'd have a Panini press up in the booth. No, I'm only half serious about all that. I just recently made the switch from all vinyl to serato, so I bring that and my computer. I still bring at least 20 records or so, just because. Sometimes I'll rock a go-go bell, and I always bring a mic. Dam-Funk has been a big inspiration for me on that end. I love talking to the crowd and interacting with everybody, I'll sing, whatever, its all good.   What music are feeling when it comes to playing out?     I've definitely been on a west coast g-funk kick lately. I was born on the same day at Dr. Dre, so I think it's in my astrology or something. Basically anything with Nate Dogg on it, I'm into. I was actually looking for Nate Dogg t-shirts on ebay the other day. A lot of the new disco stuff has been hitting pretty hard lately too. Crazy P, Classixx, Greg Wilson edits, and of course Dam-Funk. I'm working on a mix for Tucker & Bloom that's going to have a bunch of that kind of stuff on it, so stay tuned. ( Remain Tuned...its in the mail)

Ed Blammo Twitter , and Blam City Records Website for all your Blammo related needs.  

Happy Monday Folks! Here's your weekly dose...and its a doozie of a mix. The funky president spins tribute to the godfather of Soul on this rare gem. Is J Rocc the funkiest mix tape DJ ever? Is James Brown the funkiest man to walk earth? Sho Nuff.

-The Bag Messenger

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