This just came in about an hour ago, I’m up, I know a lot of others are as well, so why not!? Creative Beach is going to keep it D.C., Tabi Bonney released “The Summer Years” just a little after the official end of Summer last year but it didn’t matter because the album was well straight fire. Now, in the last month of Spring as the weather  has finally turned, we stare Summer in the face and shorts, sandals and dresses are officially out and about Tabi Bonney releases this free project “Endless Summer”. You all can check the tracklisting, listen and dowload below…good night/good morning, enjoy! Happy Friday!

DOWNLOAD HERE

Words by DeVon

It was a little before 5:00EST today when I just happened to check twitter and I saw the tweets “RIP CHUCK BROWN”. I knew he had been hospitalized just a little while ago but it didn’t register until I saw a confirmation with a full story attached. I was on my home this evening and of course I turned to the radio stations and every single one Baltimore and D.C. were playing Chuck Brown’s music. 

I am writing this from the heart, there will be a lot of local references and just straight emotion. This site represents music and culture for a world wide audience but the death of Chuck Brown hit home! It hit home like down the block, down in the country, parties and summer cookouts. The people of Maryland, D.C. and Virginia specifically did not just listen to Chuck Brown we GREW UP with him! Chuck Brown’s music was played as a part our life soundtracks. His music started cookouts, family reunions, parties and just general good times. When the word/genre of “Go-Go” is said Chuck Brown is right there in the sentence. My grandmother knows Chuck Brown’s music, my parents, my friends, younger cousins, my sister. When you say local music when you speak of Washington, D.C. and the surrounding areas you are talking about nothing other than Go-Go! 

Chuck Brown saw his music go from infancy to ingrained in the local culture and known world wide. Chuck Brown is the reason EU’s “Doin’ the Butt” became national thanks to the movie School Daze and how we were saying “oh la oh la eeeyyyy rollin’ rollin’ Kid n’ Play now” in the early 90′s. Singers and rappers have sampled Chuck Brown’s music and anyone in music  that filtered through Washington, D.C. either met him, heard the music or a combination of both. Chuck Brown was the reason the names Trouble Funk, Rare Essence, Backyard Band, Northeast Groovers, Huck A Bucks, Shuttle Thoughts and UCB mean something to people in what is now called the DMV(D.C., Maryland and Virginia).  I was too young but growing up all I heard about was the legendary show at the Capital Centre(where the now Wizards used to be Bullets used to Play) in 1987.  

Many around the world are saddened by his loss and my thoughts  go out to his family because Chuck Brown was a man, a human being. Chuck Brown was out, it wasn’t hard to cross paths of some sort with Chuck Brown. We didn’t see Chuck Brown as some icon he was just simple “Chuck” a real life representative of what we know and love here.  I had the pleasure of seeing Chuck Brown perform several times but one time stands out it was in 2007 in Baltimore and Lil’ Benny was with him(also now deceased) and let me tell you all that show was ROCKIN’! Chuck Brown was I believe 70 at the time and for a then 70 year to perform for I believe 2 hours and have the crowd dancing, sweating laughing and having a great Saturday night. I don’t know about you all but that was impressive! 

Chuck Brown will be missed and his music even today took on a new meaning because even though he created a music and culture that is solidified in the region he was here for us, he was around. Chuck was performing, he was a living legend. Chuck was making new music “boyyyy y’all here dat new Chuck, mannnn dat’s the joint”.  Chuck Brown was 75 and lived a full life from what I saw from the outside. He lived to see something that he created blossom, grow and plant deep roots. I think that is a blessing, I know to see make it to 75 is a blessing. Again my thoughts are with the family because he was a part of them. Thank you Chuck Brown!

“Wind me up Chuck”!

This is truly a pleasure! The wonderful folks over at MyFaceWhenApp contacted Creative Beach about the launch of this soon to be addictive and highly downloaded app. The App is scheduled to be released in an App Store near you tomorrow but that is pending. GIF’s have been around for a long time, if you remember when you were scrolling through message boards(yes think pre-everything social media) and a few people had some image on repeat, I know more than a few were wondering ‘how did they do that?’ Well MyFaceWhenApp takes the GIF and puts it in your hands literally! You can create your own GIF, share it, tweet it, email or press send, oh! did I mention this is done within seconds. Check out what the creators of MyFaceWhenApp have to say about it:

“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then how many words is an animated gif worth? With MyFaceWhen™, you will be able to record or upload videos, and then transform them into a high resolution, textable gif to share with your family and friends.

In seconds, MyFaceWhen allows you to record and trim your video then send it off in a text message. You can create a new video, use an existing one or even upload clips from your favorite TV shows and movies!”

Make sure to check the app store tomorrow but follow @Creativebeach on twitter or check the page because Creative Beach will tweet when the app goes live. 

Venus vs. Mars has caught the attention of the online community and now with episode 3 out, I figured I should back track and introduce this show to those of you all that are not familiar. Awkward Black Girl has simply blown up and there is room for all to display the complete range of life in the African Diaspora so the wonderful folks  across the Atlantic put together Venus vs. Mars which explores dating and relationships in London from Venus’ perspective but Venus meaning the main character. I think you all will be intrigued with the first episode and it will keep you watching to see what happens as Venus continues to search for her Mars. 

This is a purposeful post if ever there was one because the weather for today in the DMV is 80 degrees and pure 100% sunshine and …it’s Saturday! How can life get any better? So with the wonderful day that is ahead you all need a soundtrack and I think this song will suffice. Tab One of Kooley High and producer Sunshine J teamed up for this track “Sunshinin’”. I don’t think I need to write anymore, enjoy!

Oh! Kooley released a very very good…ok a dope album a little earlier this year entitled David Thompson. I’ll let Kooley High tell you about the album, check it out HERE

Also make sure you all don’t sleep on Tab One, his project Tabloids definitely ranks as a top release so let’s take it back for a bit

Happy Friday to everyone! It is Mother’s Day weekend here in the U.S. so I hope all of the mom’s reading are planning to do absolutely nothing this Sunday. Hopefully the day is going well and what the thought process here is that around this time more than a few people are looking at the clock at work and waiting to bolt out the door and get the weekend started. So to help you focus here is Mashable’s new documentary series entitled “Behind the Launch”. Mashable goes behind the scenes of a new start up called Vungle. Vungle is a start-up that allows app developers to post video explaining their apps. Now at first I thought hmmmmm but from a conceptual standpoint it is genius. I won’t go into too much detail, so watch and find out. 

Episode 1

Episode 2

As it quickly warms up here in the northeast U.S. and the humidity settles in for another Summer the movement known as Occupy Wall Street seems to be resurfacing and making its presence known once again. It never went away but as the winter brought people in from the cold and police departments around the country and the world broke up encampments and tent cities there wasn’t much being said about the Occupy Wall Street movement. 2011 was a very interesting year and a year that personally left me in awe as I watched what is now called the “Arab Spring” shoot across North Africa and towards the Middle East in a wave that month after month saw something new, protests stretched from Africa to literally around the world and then as almost a symbolism of how the sun shines on the world the United States caught the wave towards the end of the year with mass protests against a very unfavorable law in Wisconsin and then in September a group of people set up tents in lower Manhattan and the world watched as it became almost a mainstay. From September to close to December Occupy Wall Street became normal in a way that you almost forgot that before September 17th it was just a park in the financial district, no different from many other small parks in Manhattan. 

In this digital world, time is tricky, days can seem longer, weeks and months can seem like years, this is the energy that the documentary “#whilewewatch” captures. The documentary comes in at just under 40 minutes but the comprehensive nature of the film makes it seem as though you sitting for two hours. The documentary covers almost every aspect of the Occupy Wall Street movement from the inside as well as commentary from those on the outside. Regardless of what most think of Occupy Wall Street 2011 was as close to the late 1960′s as my generation has ever seen thus far. Block out an hour and watch “#Whilewewatch” but don’t get too lost, remember this all happened less than a year ago. 

Tiye Phoenix is definitely no stranger to Creative Beach and the wonderful people at TheBeeShine did an in depth interview with Ms. Tiye Phoenix about her upcoming EP which is a prelude to her sophomore album(if you don’t have ‘Half Woman, Half Amazing, run go get that!).  Listen to what Tiye is saying, there is definitely some knowledge being purposely let out for the masses.