Posts tagged “Open Mike Eagle”

A few years ago some researchers from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders did a study where they hooked some jazz musicians into fMRI machines and had them do some musical improvisation to see what their brains looked like when they were improvising as opposed to when they were playing rehearsed, learned musics. The results were interesting.

Interesting enough that it caught the attention of hip-hop artist Mike Eagle and hip-hop “enthusiast and producer” Daniel Rizik-Baer1. They contacted one of the researchers with an interesting proposal: the original study had been about improvising music. What about improvising lyrics?

Soon twelve hip-hop freestylers including Mike Eagle were hooked up (one at a time) to fMRI machines to see what happened in their brains when they went off-script and started improvising rhyming lyrics.

Researcher Ho Ming Chow uses an fMRI machine to scan the brain of hip-hop artist Mike Eagle.
Daniel Rizik-Baer

THIS IS SCIENCE! And it’s completely awexome. There are tons of ramifications for studies like this; seeing how the creative process happens in the brain can lead to all sorts of applications for developmental disabilities and brain damage.

If you like, you can read the whole report here: Neural Correlates of Lyrical Improvisation: An fMRI Study of Freestyle Rap

You really should read it, because Mr. Mike Eagle is one of the co-authors! Yes, that’s right: Mike Eagle co-authored a scientific paper. Unbelievably cool.

Read more about this study at these websites:

• NPR: A Peek Inside Rappers’ Brains Shows Roots Of Improvisation
• Discovery News: This Is Your Brain On Freestyle Rap

Science kicks total ass. Never doubt it.

I wonder what my brain looks like when I’m doing my type of improv.

1 Discovery News

Here is the latest official video from Mr. Eagle‘s 4NML HSPTL album. This one is a suitably trippy video for a song called Self-Medication Chant. Enjoy!

Sorry I haven’t posted much lately, but I have been “busy” as they say. There is a big post upcoming, though. Mayhaps early next week? Who is to be knowing?

Here’s the latest official video from the homie Open Mike Eagle, for his song “Your Backpack Past” (which references “Your Redneck Past” by Ben Folds). That Mike sure is a handsome man, and bonus: this video features two hip-hop-video hoochies!

As you may have gathered from a previous post, Carrie & I went up to Seattle on Wednesday to see a hippity-hop show!

The big surprise for me was my introduction to the man known as Mega Ran. He has a fascinating story. He originally called himself Random. Then few years ago he started taking background music from the Mega Man series of video games, mixing it up a little bit, adding a bigger beat, and making raps over the top of that. He gained some notoriety from it.

Then one day he gets a phone call. From Capcom of America. And they basically say, “So… we understand that you’re making songs with our copyrighted music.”

“No, that wasn’t me, uh, that was that other guy!”

“No, no, no, we listen to it all the time here at the office! We love it! We want you to come on down to Comic-Con and hang out with us in the booth. And also, we want to officially license you to use Capcom music in your songs.”

So now (changing his name to Mega Ran) he has Capcom’s official permission to use their music. On the back of his CDs is the Capcom logo. Pretty frikkin’ cool. And also he’s terrifically entertaining! He has a ton of energy and is really funny. He also did an improv game where he had people in the audience hold up props and he did a freestyle that incorporated the props into the lyrics.

He had so much energy, though, that my crappy cell phone camera couldn’t take a good photo of him. Here’s the best I got:

Mega Ran!

If you look close at that photo, you might notice that his left hand has been replaced by Mega Man’s Mega Buster. That happened!

Open Mike Eagle was the headliner, and his set was awexome as always. I again tried to get some shots with my crappy cell phone camera, and here’s the best I came up with:

Open Mike Eagle!

Mike Eagle Gots Them Scary Eyes!

So, yeah, really good show. We unfortunately missed Three Ninja’s set, but it was good to see some friends in the audience. I just wish Mike would (A) come through Seattle more often and (B) play a show on a Friday so we don’t have to worry about being out late on a school night. Carrie & I were pretty much exhausted the whole next day (we’re old).

Thanks, Mike! And it was great to meet you, Mega Ran!

Open Mike Eagle, he of my “Album of the Month” right now, is bringing himself to Seattle Tuesday the 17th (tomorrow). Here, watch this adorable promo video Mike made for his tour:

See? Adorable. Plus my friend @HeartFeltRobots made the plush robot in the video! Plus-plus one of his opening acts is Three Ninjas. Plus-plus-plus it’s a FREE show! So be sure to join us at Nectar Lounge tomorrow evening for what promises to be an excellent show.

Just to whet your appetite, here is Mike’s just-released video for “Universe Man” from 4NML HSPTL:

Link of the Month:
Retronaut
You may know that I have a fascination with retro futurism, or paleofuturism as it is sometimes called. But I also love context for paleofuturism, and how contemporary popular culture shapes our worldviews. Retronaut is rapidly becoming my new favorite website with its archive of photos, advertisements, catalogs, and what-nots of the whole span of the 20th century (and a little bit on both ends of it). It is handily divided by decade, and offers some great insight into the mindsets of bygone eras. Retronaut’s slogan speaks volumes: “The Past is a foreign country. This is your passport.”

Album of the Month:
4NML HSPTL by Open Mike Eagle
Another smashing album by hip-hop stalwart Open Mike Eagle. How can you not love an album that references a couple They Might Be Giants songs and a Ben Folds song? The music was all produced by one producer, Awkward, and has an incredibly well-done spacey/electro/psychadelic fringe. This gives the album a very unified feel but at the cost of the wild, freewheeling diversity that marked Mike’s first two albums. My personal favorite is “4NML” (which references TMBG’s “Don’t Let’s Start”), a wonderfully literate and biting lament at the inadequacy of language to be able to accurately convey an artist’s message, which is a bold statement from someone who plies his trade with lyrics. In fact, the subtitle of “4NML” is “Korzybski’s Lament,” a reference to Alfred Korzybski, who basically invented the modern science of semantics back in the early 1930s. Other standouts are “Universe Man” (which references TMBG’s “Particle Man”), “Your Back Pack Past” (which reference’s Ben Folds’s “Your Redneck Past”), and the very funny “DanceBill,” which cautions against shaking your moneymaker because “that shit costs money, too.”

Game of the Month:
Tiny Tower
Sometimes I am a sucker for economic simulators. Tiny Tower is an adorable skyscraper simulator that in absolutely no way resembles what it would actually be like to build & run a skyscraper. You build floors, assign them residential or business purposes (like retail, recreation, food, service, and creative), give jobs to the people who live on the residential floors, stock shelves with products, and build more floors. I like it because you can either intently play it or play it as a poke-and-forget game that you only check for a few seconds every few hours. There are fun extras like missions, costumes, and dream jobs. You can see the progress of my Tiny Tower at any time here: http://towers.nimblebit.com/android/45565065. Available for iOS and Android.

Open Mike Eagle's 4NML HSPTL

We’re all very excited that Open Mike Eagle is going to be releasing a new album called 4NML HSPTL at the end of June. To whet the appetite, Mike has slowly been releasing preview tracks from the album. First he released “Universe Man (feat Serengeti),” which quotes a They Might Be Giants song:

(via Pigeons & Planes)

First time I heard “Universe Man” was live at Nectar Lounge earlier this year. I just about flipped out as if I were a ninja, that’s how good it is.

Then earlier this week he leaked “Your Back Pack Past (feat Has Lo),” which quotes a Ben Folds song!

See, there are good reasons why we like Mike so much.

4NML HSPTL drops June 26th via Fake Four Records.