Jimmy Page, Edge & Jack White.
Just stayed up later than i probably should have to watch this documentary on three great guitarists and each of their relationships with their instrument and their role. Worth the bother for sure. Note – I dig Led Zeppelin a lot and I’m not mad at U2, but Jack White is from Detroit (more…)

I was on tour back in Feb, headed through NYC to a couple Connecticut shows w/ the homie AKA and the show in Brooklyn has been reviewed by a blog, and the bloggers even made a video from the show. The blog is DIO: Do It Ourselves and it’s all about music reviews, industry news and artist views. Turns out the guys played w/ me in Indiana and… you can read the rest in their blog, don’t forget their video too. . . enjoy: (more…)

So when we got into Denver we went and kicked it w/ Brad (of Simplicity fame & the 1996 Canton Chiefs Homecoming King) then headed up to the Marquis Theater for an early all ages show. There D. Allie and I did our usual hustle, meeting the good people at the venue and trying to stir up some interest before our sets. We played w/ The Pirate Signal, A.What, Mane Rok, DJ Bereta, AIr Dubai. Had a good time rocking, glad D. Allie had some friends come through, my cousin Justin came out w/ some ladies, Brad came through and a few Denver folks i met when i came through there on tour in January. Here’s some pics…

So here we are in Hollerado, our 1st day off on tour and where am I … a damned rap show. We’re in Denver though so it’s good. Last night at the show some girl was talking about D-Town (which has meant “Detroit” to me ever since the 10th grade when my boy Tyler started using the term about going to skate Hart Plaza late nights) and naturally had me listening in. Turns out she meant the Mile High City or 303, as 3OH!3 refers to the town. Debate ensued- drunken on her behalf and stubborn on mine. Here are some of my observations of the contrasts between Chauncey’s old home & his new home (yeah – Billups).

Got to drive about 3 miles from my good ol’ pal Bradd’s place to a nice little cement skate park where we played about five games of B.O.N.E.S. Then David and I met Yonnas down here @ Cervantes in Denver to sell some more CDs on a day we’re not working. It’s a Grieves show, hadn’t heard of him before but all the folks here sure know him- good work Grieves. So I’m standing outside hustling CDs to people smoking, passing by or coming in, touching Denver a little bit, listening. There happens to be another venue two doors down, sounded like a jam band was playing and it looked like mostly hippies patronizing the place. Walking down the black later in the night, heading to the car for more CDs, I notice a homeless lookin guy outside the other bar talking to a girl who was taking a cigarette break outside the other venue. At first I didn’t think much of it, if anything I figured that Denver was more like Detroit than I gave it credit to be. On the walk back into Cervantes with a fistfull of CDs & stickers I realized the girl had a bag of weed and was breaking my man off with a pinner to hold him over in his search for change/food.

Detroit & Denver: Not The Same.

Tonight was a blast (pics soon as nichole gets them uploaded or emailed). D. Allie and I got to play in a basement for a house party in Boulder CO. DJ Juanita (Jace) started the night off spinning some Housey electronic stuff to get the hippies and climbers and stoners warmed up, then we took the carpet. I decided to don the dress pants and vest get up I debuted @ the Obama inauguration party back in january, and my slippery dress shoes on the carpet made for some exceptional dancing opportunities during my set. D. Allie rocked w/ some classics off “The Cooperative” and our Boulder family got down. We had a special guest show up literally out the blue, our mutual friend reggae artist King Jazzy out of Ann Arbor was in Denver for his son’s birthday and heard about the show on his girl’s Facebook page. I put him on the spot w/ a Dilla instrumental and he came through in professional fashion. It was a good night, we got some music out to the Boulder set. Videos are still under review but it’s been said there are some good photos, so we’ll see. We’re supposed to record w/ Jace saturday, track number 5 for our project.

Tomorrow we head back into Denver for the show @ the Marquis Theater w/ The Pirate Signal.

live video from the road
D. Allie’s youtube channel
D. Allie’s tour blog

Another stop in the bathroom (it’s quiet & well let, what can i say lol), this time w/ my homie O.Tech who I met right there and ended up DJing w/ me for my set:

Tonight D. Allie and I got the official unofficial kickoff for the Sweat Equity Tour underway @ the Blue Collar Gentlemen event @ the Old Miami. Also had Keyel from Cleveland, our homie Mobil and Ann Arbor’s own young burners Tree City. It was a great show, ETX, REFT, Aztek, Jaws, Amber, Mary, Eric… it was a good spread of canton kids and hip hop fam. here’s a clip:

So, here it comes The Sweat Equity Tour: four weeks of shows from Detroit to Denver, New Orleans to Chicago & Austin somewhere in the middle 3/6 to 3/30. It will be me (@DanteLaSalle) & D. Allie (@DAllie) packed into a Honda Element with a couple thousand CDs, piles of shirts, stacks of stickers & reams of flyers. once in Austin we will pick up our buddy Chief (@MusicByChief). We will be twittering the whole way through, marking any tweets about The Sweat Equity Tour with this secret beacon #SEqT so that during & after tour you all can search the tweets about tour and see the dialogue and the whole story all at once. Also we will be doing vlog updates and posting random clips from the road at live.DanteLaSalle.com & on D. Allie’s YouTube channel & Hip Hop is my Soul blog. Thanks the family of organizations supporting us on the road: Havoc, USM, GAM Media, District 81 clothing, VG Kids & Burn Rubber.