This past Friday, DJ Neil Armstrong of the 5th Platoon, and better known as Jay-Z’s tour DJ, made a stop at LA’s Soul Sessions in Chinatown. I first heard of DJNA back in 2005. Ever since then, I’ve been following him and every one of his mix tape releases. What makes his mix tapes stand above everything else is his eclectic musical taste. Anything from Prince, The Cure, Coldplay, Tears for Fears to Alicia Keys, Gregory Abbot, Common and Jay-Z can all be found on the same CD. He recently finished a worldwide tour with Jay-Z as his tour DJ. This has no doubt catapulted him into the mainstream spotlight and I’m glad that a lot more people will be exposed to his work.

I had a chance to catch Neil right before his set at Soul Sessions and he was nice enough to stop for a quick picture to represent Social Clothing.

A huge crowd gathered at the front stage when he started his set. I made sure I had my spot at the front. Simply put, he killed it. I don’t think there was a head that wasn’t bobbin that night.

With DJ PlannB

Here are some pictures from the end of the night.

Grand Star Jazz Club

The Shrimp Guys were also set up in the parking lot to satisfy those late night munchies.

It’s not Giovanni’s, but it’ll do

Soul Sessions is held at Grand Star Jazz Club in Chinatown every 2nd and 4th Friday. Thank you DJ Neil Armstrong for bringing the West Coast some love.

Twitter:
DJ Neil Armstrong
Soul Sessions
The Shrimp Guys

The Hood Internet is a Chicago based DJ duo that specializes in hip hop and indie rock mash ups. I heard about them a little over a year ago via Jason Kottke (bookmark his site, it’s a great read). They released their fourth mixtape (is that term even relevant in 2010?) in November but really didn’t give it a full listen until I was tired of listening to my same “workout” playlist on my iPhone. After giving them a full run through from beginning to end, it’s my current “what should I listen to while I get ready to go out” soundtrack.

I’m sure you’ve heard similar type mixes but the way they choose current hip hop songs and combine them to more obscure “indie” instrumentals and the way they mix them seamlessly makes them sound like that’s the way they were supposed to be made. My favorite mashups on the CD are:

Modest Mouse vs. Kanye West
Clipse vs. Yuksek
Amanda Blank vs. VEGA
Flo Rida (feat. Ke$ha) vs. MSTRKRFT

Their fourth volume is easily my favorite of all their mixes although all of their CDs can stand independently by themselves. Best of all, all four mix tapes are available for download for free on their site. Enjoy.

I’d like to start this post by saying I am an unabashed Apple fanboy, so you shouldn’t be surprised to see a fair amount of Apple related posts. That said, even if I wasn’t an Apple fanboy, how could I let this pass. Gizmodo apparently has pictures of the yet-to-be-announced fourth generation iPhone. The story goes like this: someone found what looks to be like a normal iPhone 3G/3GS in a bar Redwood City, CA (Nor Cal). Upon closer inspection, it looks to be an Apple prototype of a phone that hasn’t been released. The person who found the phone alerted both Engadget and Gizmodo of the find and reportedly sold the phone to Gizmodo for a rumored $10,000 to what amounts to be the largest Apple, if not largest gadget, scoop of all time.

A couple of my thoughts on this. This is either a planned leak, which Apple routinely does to gauge interest on a new product, or someone at Apple is unemployed as of this morning. It uses the new micro SIM standard that the new iPad 3G is going to use. This means the iPhone is still on AT&T at least, and there is no Verizon version, yet. The rest of the specs are amazing. All new enclosure, improved camera with flash (!), front facing camera (!!), and a higher resolution screen. Be sure to check out the full post at Gizmodo for all the details.

Update (9:33pm): If there were any doubt if this iPhone were real, this should clear it up.

Most people associate Downtown Santa Ana with local government buildings, homeless people and jury duty. A lot has changed in recent years and it no longer deserves that stigma. In a little unassuming store front on Broadway, you’ll find one of the more unique spots on Orange County. In fact, it was voted best bar in all of Orange County two years in a row. The Crosby is a restaurant, bar, bookstore started by 3 friends who all had the same vision.

The Crosby recently celebrated their 2 year anniversary on April 1st. To celebrate they had DJ Rhettmatic of the World Famous Beat Junkies and PlannB, resident DJ of LA’s Soul Sessions spin some classic, definitive hip hop. Here are some shots from that night.

The Crosby is open Monday through Saturday from 5p-2a. You can catch Rhettmatic and PlannB at the Crosby every 1st Thursday of the month.

The Crosby
400 N. Broadway
Santa Ana CA 92701
www.thisisthecrosby.com

My name is Jay and I’m the second blogger/author on the Social Clothing blog. Based here in Downtown Orange County (Santa Ana), I hope you find my posts on technology, new media, music, local events and random links engaging, insightful and entertaining. Aside from posting here on the Social Clothing blog, you can follow me on Twitter or on my personal site. Stay tuned.