 | You don’t have to be into hip hop to know that great rappers die young. You know the old Biggie and Tupac tropes. Rapper has larger-than-life charisma and unquestionable skills. Rapper gets killed tragically at the hands of violent attacker(s). Rapper’s body of work and legacy lives on decades after their accomplished albeit short life. Today we pay tribute to slain hip hop activist, Mario van Rooy aka Mr Devious, who would have turned 34 last Friday. ...read more |
Make Way, Hier Kom Mr Devious Verby
Friday, September 23rd, 2011 by Rob Cockcroft
The First Grader
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 by Kavish Chetty
 | I’m possibly picking up a reputation as a Michiko Kakutani figure around here: you know – “that guy” – impossible to impress, serially venomous; I’ve even had the luxury of a few anti-Marxist slurs hurled at me on the comment thread. To all this I can only offer up my best Billy Crystal impersonation: “what do you want me to do?” So let’s defang, slip the spilled acerb back into its mantle-piece bottle and be pleasant. But only with a ...read more |
Inscape
Monday, September 19th, 2011 by Roger Young
 | Isochronous have an uncanny ability to write glorious, mdma-level singalong inducing pop prog songs that have incredible longevity. On their 3rd album however, the longevity of these songs may have finally been stretched to its limit. I don’t think I can fully explain to you how hard it was for me to type that previous sentence. While only three of the songs on the album have been recorded in other versions, I have heard the bulk of them in live ...read more |
Spooky Attractions
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 by Roger Young
 | There is a large seventies chandelier made out of glass balls; it hangs solid and imposing above the almost empty space of the converted church. A fold out table, a drum kit, a few chairs, cables. On three sides there are rising levels of empty plastic chairs. Juliana Venter’s project with Joseph Suchy, Spooky Attraction From A Distance is playing its last gig in Cape Town and there are about twelve people here to witness it. ...read more |
Mr Jones and Me
Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 by Sipho Hlongwane, images by Dorothy Mhone
 | Something is happening here. But I don’t know what it is. They’re laughing. What at, I can’t tell. They’re here in packs of two and three, evidently willing to have a good time. I haven’t been in the room for two seconds and I can already tell that I don’t belong. Or I’m not supposed to belong. I’m definitely not in on the joke. I feel like Mr Jones in Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” ...read more |
Jazz Lakes
Monday, September 12th, 2011 by Carlos Amato
 | Last Sunday at Zoo Lake. One of those windless, birdy spring days when Joburg makes like paradise, and a happy siege of wors-wielding refugees is damming up against the perimeter fence of Jazz on the Lake. ...read more |
Trains and Danes: The Jim Neversink Interview
Friday, September 9th, 2011 by Brandon Edmonds
 | Jim Neversink is hands down the best alt country / lo fi loserbilly this place has ever coughed up. Jim Neversink (2005), Shakey is Good (2008) and Skinny Girls Are Trouble (2010) ought to be playing every time it rains. Or shines. He’s our answer to Smog. And funny too. “Idols judges would send Lou Reed packing for another cheap George Michael imitation in a heartbeat.” We tracked Jim down to see how he’s doing and he delivered the harshest, ...read more |
How to Steal 2 Million
Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 by Kavish Chetty
 | At the risk of sounding overreaching (but no more so than this film), America’s imperial campaigns in the Middle East share a strange logic with How to Steal 2 Million. ...read more |
On Point
Monday, September 5th, 2011 by Carlos Amato
 | Until he opens his mouth, Julius Malema’s importance in South African politics makes no sense. How can it be that such an unimpressive man wields such impressive power over his constituency? He is treacherous, flabby, cynical, unprepossessing, vain and venal. Most South Africans recognise him as a bozo. But this bozo can talk the hind leg off a liberation movement. ...read more |
Last Sunday
Sunday, September 4th, 2011 , images by pop skiet
 | Last Sunday, Melville Koppies, Johannesburg, 13h29 ...read more |
