Beast of the Beats II

Yesterday (Sunday) was the iStandardproducers.com "BEAST OF THE BEATS II" and there were i think 20 producers who were winners of previous Monthly Beat Battles from NYC, Philly, Chicago, and Atlanta, who all came together to battle it out for some pretty awesome prizes and supreme bragging rights. The competition was heated as everybody brought their best shots.

When the dust cleared, producer "The Letter C" stood atop the rubble as the winner of Beats of the Beats II. A very big congrats goes out to The Letter C, and as i was a sponsor of the event, The Letter C also wins a free mixdown from me. I wish i could offer a free mix to all of the producers as they were all incredibly talented. The top 4 winners were

1. The Letter C
2. JPat
3. Canei Finch
4. El Boogs

Some of my other personal favorites included PersuaZion, Pyro, and the Rockstars, but man, everybody really had some heat. The event was at a club in Manhattan called "Touch", which just had a monsterous sound system and a nice stage area. The judging panel included industry heavyweight Dave Lighty - A&R at Jive Records, and Pete Rock, whom i recorded his Soul Survivors album with. I havent seen Pete in 10 years! though we worked together on "Dogs of War" for the Ghostface Killah "Fishscale" album. Also, much to my complete surprise, Just Blaze was in the building, which i didnt know at first and apparently i walked right past him when i went over to say hi to Pete Rock and totally missed Just Blaze. When i found out Just was there, i went back to and caught up with him for a good half hour, I havent seen him in a while, though not long ago we did a bit of work together on the Saigon project.

Anyway. What a night. Congrats to all the producers and Kudos to Don Di Napoli and J Hatch of istandardproducers.com for putting on such a high profile and well run event!

-Ken Lewis

Viva Espana!

Congrats to the Spanish National Soccer Team who won the Euro Cup 2008 Tournament on Sunday beating Germany 1-0. A very enjoyable match in which Spain clearly dominated the German squad on both offense and defense. Sorry Ramon, my team won :-)

-Ken Lewis

ESPANA!!

I only saw the second half of the match, but Espana really dominated Russia in the Euro 2008 Semi Final today, beating them 3 -0 to advance to the finals. Beautiful goal scoring and offenseive play in general. Spain faces Germany on Sunday for the Cup Finals! Germany, you know I love you, but I'm picking Spain to win it all. Ramon, who are you picking? :-)

-Ken Lewis

Small Town Sleeper Enters the Charts!!!!

Ohio Pop rock band "Small Town Sleeper", signed to my production company and Upper 11 / Fontana Records is finally on the charts. This has been a long time in the making to say the least. I met the band in 2000 (yes 8 years ago) and began developing them. I got them signed in 2006 and began producing their debut album which we finished in March of 2007.

Their first single "Backseat" has now been serviced to radio and is starting to make its presence felt. hopefully this is just the very beginning of a long chart run. "Backseat" debuted last week on the"CHR / Top 40 Indicator" chart last week at #37 and climbed to #36 this week. I've included a screenshot of the chart. Most notable is who's on the charts next to them. American Idol, David Cook, at #38, Taylor Swift at #32, Maroon 5 at #28. I'd say they are in excellent company indeed. You can listen to (and buy) "Backseat" on the band's myspace page, www.MySpace.com/SmallTownSleeper

Give it a listen! I am extremely proud of this album. (there are also Listen clips on my home page).

-Ken Lewis

Germany Denies The Turks!

Did anyone see the Euro Cup 2008 Semi Final Soccer match, Germany against the Cinderella Turkish squad. WHAT A MATCH!!! I thought Turkey dominated most of the game, and certainly had more scoring opportunities, but they did dodge a bullet with a flagrant foul in the penalty box that went uncalled, and would have been a penalty kick. Turkey trailed late in the game 2-1, and tied it up with several minutes left in the match. Just as it looked like overtime, Germany scored an amazing goal to win the match 3-2. Congrats Germany and good luck in the finals! Turkey, what can you say, they've had the most amazing tournament of any team and should be immensely proud as a team and nation. they played a great game tonight. -Ken

No End In Sight - You MUST Watch This

My production partner recently saw a documentary on the Iraq war called "No End In Sight". He was so moved by it that he told me i absolutely MUST watch it. So i just watched it, and I am now telling you, YOU MUST WATCH THIS. Rent the movie. Steal it from the internet. but watch it. It gives such deep insight into the (complete lack of) post war planning, and generally breaks down in shocking detail how everything in Iraq got so beyond fucked up. This is a not a Bush bashing propaganda film. It mostly relies on direct interviews with major players behind the scenes. The people who were there, knew what they were doing, or didnt, and either did not have the resources, or the man power, or were fired and replaced with completely incompetent people, or were sidelined while the Bush Administration made incredibly blunderous, short sighted, mistakes that led us down the path we're still on. I cannot begin to describe to you how the impact this film will (should) have on you, only that you, as an American, owe it to yourself to be much better informed than you currently are. Here's a link to the film trailer, and I have also provided several other links to additional articles and additional interviews with some of the people interviewed for the film.

No End In Sight - Film Trailer

interview with the Director

Video Interview with Colonel Paul Hughes

Sincerely,

-Ken Lewis

Sign O' the Times

Give this article a quick read.

Gas Prices Thwart Indie Band Tours


On an unrelated note, a big congrats to Spain who advanced to the Semi Finals over Italy today! They play Russia in the semi final for Euro Cup 2008 Soccer!

-Ken Lewis

Costs Of War

Please take 60 seconds out of your day to watch this. With over 4,100 US Soldiers dead, tens of thousands wounded, almost $600 Billion spent to date (mostly borrowed money from China) with projections of 3 TRILLION in costs. What are we gaining from occupying Iraq?

Costs Of War

Thanks for watching

-Ken Lewis

Heartbreak Kids

Wow, what a finish!!!! I just watched the Croatia Vs. Turkey Quarterfinal match for the Euro Cup 2008. WOW! It was 0-0 into the second overtime period. Croatia scored late in the period which looked like it would certainly clinch the game. But Turkey was not to be denied, as they have been the comeback kids all tournament, Turkey scored the equalizer goal in stoppage time at the very end of the second overtime to throw the game into Penalty Kicks. UNBELIEVABLE!!! Well, if that wasn't unbelievable enough, Croatia missed 3 of 4 Penalty Kicks, and Turkey made all of their first 3 Penalty kicks to win the match. I know the whole country of Croatia must simply be heartbroken and at the other side of the pendulum, all of Turkey must certainly be partying like its 1999! Congrats Turkey! You get to face Germany in the Semi's. Yikes!
-Ken Lewis

Danity Hangs Tough!

THis weeks "Damaged" update report. All of the singles chart positions for Danity Kane's hit single "Damaged" have held even.

Billboard Charts.....

Pop 100 Airplay #3 (last week #3)
Pop 100 Singles #5 (last week #5)
Hot 100 Airplay #8 (last week #8)
Hot 100 Singles #14 (last week #13)

Go DK go!

-Ken Lewis

Gas Prices - Explanation

OK, here's a bit of info for you as to why gas prices are so high and how they might stay that way....... or not. It gets REALLY interesting around 6 minutes in, but is definitely worth watching the whole 10 minute clip.
Knowledge is Power.

High Gas Prices - Video

-Ken Lewis

A Little Something to Brighten Your Day

OK, probably only real Star Wars fans will appreciate this, but i imagine thats ALOT of people. I am one of them, just call me Kenobi.

These are clips from "Robot Chicken", which in my view might just be the best show on television. The #1 clip has got to be the 2 best minutes of TV ever created.

Star Wars - Watch Clip #1

ENJOY!

-Ken

PS. Portugal plays Germany today!!! Euro Cup 2008! I've got a bit of Portugese blood in me, so I've got to go with my ancestry.

Who's Watching Soccer? Euro Cup 2008

Congrats go out today to Italy for its 2-0 smackdown on France, which advanced Italy to the Quarter Finals along with The Netherlands from their group. Better luck next year France, you know i love you. I'm looking forward to watching Sweden play Russia tomorrow as well as Greece against Spain. I love soccer. I played year round my whole life from 6 years old until i was 22 (when i moved to NYC). I also got to attend several matches during the 1994 World Cup in America, where i saw, among other games, Bulgaria beat the mighty Germany!

Who else is watching the Euro Cup?
-Ken Lewis

Damaged @ #3!

This weeks chart update on Danity Kane "Damaged"

Pop 100 Singles Airplay - #3 (up from #5!!)
Pop 100 Singles - #5 (up from #10!!)
Hot 100 Singles Airplay - #8 (last week #8)
Hot 100 Singles - #13 (down from #12, peaked at #10)

Damaged Remix featuring Fabolous

I just finished mixing Danity Kane's "Damaged" Remix featuring rapper Fabolous. Its basically the same version as before but with a section added for Fab to rhyme over. Of course as usual, Fab spit fire on the track. Keep your ears open for this to hit radio soon. Bad Boy usually makes this stuff happen pretty quickly.
I'm also in the middle of mixing 6 songs for new Jive R&B artist Lee Carr. This dude is gonna be a star. I love every song I've mixed so far. His current single "Stilettos" is on the radio now (i did not mix that song, i came into the project after it went to radio). More about this project later.
-Ken Lewis

Ouch $70 For Gas!

Damn. I just paid $70 to fill my gas tank. I can't believe it. I thought it was bad a few months ago when it was costing $50 to fill the tank. (in Europe last fall it cost me over $100 per fill up). Is it the worthless US Dollar? The Oil men in the White House? War destabilizing the Middle East? Stock market speculation and manipulation driving up the price? Increased demand from India and China? A complete lack of a US Energy Policy, or the fact that people like Kenneth Lay (Enron) helped write the Energy Policy with Dick Cheney (who is still heavily invested in Halliburton)? Lack of investment in alternative energies?

Did you know the US Senate recently stripped all tax credits for renewable energies out of the latest energy bill? UN F-ING BELIEVABLE. There's the Big Oil Lobby at work buying Senate votes, spineless Democrat and Republican alike. Did you know we still PAY US Tax dollars to the oil companies for subsidies for oil exploration, at the same time that they are posting PROFIT, after taxes, of TEN BILLION DOLLARS a quarter!! (Thats 3 months, ten billion in profit). So, we subsidize oil, and we dont subsidize renewable energy.

When Bush entered office, he pledged to give 9 Billions dollars over 4 years, mostly to the big 3 automakers, to research clean transportation alternatives. 9 billion. You might as well spit into the wind (the wind we arent harnessing for energy). Conversely, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the United States spends approximately 9 Billion dollars a month to wage war in Iraq. Imagine if 8 years ago, our answer to Saddam was "keep your F'ing oil, we wont need it in ten years" and then we spent 50 or 100 billion building Solar farms, Wind farms, clean burning coal factories (yes you CAN burn coal completely cleanly, we just dont do it). We could have been well on our way to ending our dependency on foreign oil by now. Instead we are 8 years behind and paying $4 for a gallon of gas. Europe of course is laughing at us because they pay almost double that for gas, but across Europe you see small cars, and wind farms generating power.

Just thought i'd vent and maybe drop some info for people to think about. I'd love to hear what you have to say. leave a comment.
-Ken Lewis

Zaho - French indie Success!!!!

Last year i mixed a song called "Dima" for an independent French Canadian artist named Zaho (she sings in French). "Dima" became the title track to her album which was picked up by EMI International for distribution. EMI launched the album in France and so far it has done very well. I just got a letter from the producer of the song i mixed, asking me to mix her next single. Here is an excerpt from the letter...

......Hi Ken,
Things are going pretty well for Zaho, her first single has been hovering at #3 physical sales for a few weeks now (#1 on some digital platform as well), the single has been #1 on Skyrock, the #1 urban radio in france and we are in the 10th most played track in the national airplay. the album is not doing bad at all at all either and we just finished shooting the 2nd video for her next single in order to boost those as well. Everybody's unanimous, "Dima" is the best sounding track on the album (and a good 4th single).........


This is why i love my job. Congrats on all the success so far Zaho, and hopefully much more coming your way. If you would like to hear Zaho, her website is www.myspace.com/zaho

enjoy!
-Ken Lewis

Damaged Holding On

THis week's Billboard Charts just came out. Danity Kane's single "Damaged" is hanging on tight at the top of the charts. Here's a run down. (i mixed 5 songs on the album including "Damaged")

"DAMAGED"
Pop 100 Airplay - #5 (last week #5)
Pop 100 Singles - #10 (Last week #9)
Hot 100 Airplay - #8 (last week #8)
Hot 100 Singles - #12 (last week #11)

"Welcome to the Dollhouse"
R&B 100 Albums - #30 (debuted at #1 and is now Gold)
Top 200 Albums - #95 (debuted at #1 and is now Gold)

Day 26 - Album is current #48 on the R&B 100 Albums (i mixed the 1st single "Got Me Going" and 4 more songs on the album)

-Ken Lewis

"ALL WE WANT" - VIDEO

Do you have a dream? desires? wants? wishes? Well, so do New York City indie rockers "Man On Earth". They just finished up their new video to a song i produced called "All We Want". Please watch it, link it, send it to your friends, post it on your MySpace, watch it again, etc...

Man On Earth - All We Want - VIDEO

ENJOY!

-Ken Lewis