thefarmersblock:

San Francisco Street Food Fest just asked our resident Chef Angst if @TheFarmersBlock would wanna participate in this years event, he went ahead and said mosdef!!! Now it’s gonna take 400 votes to get us in, but if you help you will be rewarded.. You will be supporting, locally farms, organic, healthy vegan/vegetarian culinary fare…

Please vote for #TheFarmersBlock before or on this Thursday..

http://www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/vote_for_your_vendor.php

featured in the pic is #MikeGiant lovin’ our vegan almond butter elote!!!

MIKE MELERO aka BOBBY PERU

HB: From holding weeklies in Oakland to playing in SoCal and all over for that matter, you are a very busy man. What do you like to eat and drink to keep the voltage up and productions hot?

MM: I actually go out to eat a lot, I like to hit up souly vegan on broadway near Jack London Square, it’s a crackin little vegan soul food spot. Everything there is off the hook. I also like to hit up this amazing Thai Spot in east Oakland called Champa Garden. Im stepping up my food cooking game right now. Working on a few specialties, I go to this produce store down the way from my apartment in west Oakland and they got everything I need from Soy Chorizo to Pomegranate Aloe Juice.

HB: what about when you are feeling really drained and need to get into the grind, what’s the go to?

MM: When I need to get pumped for the day I usually ride my bike to this little cafe east of Lake Merit called Cafe 504 the serve up ritual roast coffee and bake fresh pastries every morning. They also have these quichies, blud… which are to die for. Also east of the lake in the Parkway district i roll to my home away from home, Woody’s Cafe the owner Robert Ma will usually hook me up with a cup of coffee and tell me a good story. He’s the man.

HB: Thanks Mike! Keep up the good work. Big things coming up. Break a leg in LA.

MM: Thanks man.

HB: Check out Mike’s Music (http://soundcloud.com/mike-m-1/for-sure)

$wervin Mix (http://soundcloud.com/thizz-face-disco/wrvn)

And his blog (http://thizzfacedisco.wordpress.com/)

Here’s another little mix for you sly dub heads:

http://soundcloud.com/farmerb/dub-sexy

Summer Camp:

http://www.mediafire.com/?fmmzjnttovf

Photography:

http://JoshStansfield.com

HB: Josh, you have been blasting bangers, shooting lazers and juggling beats since you were a young, crate-digging gun. Your technic technique is pretty crazy and your sets at burning man lit the party up. Thank you so much for sitting down and granting this interview to Harvest Beats. So, I know you started off down the path of being a DJ as a young guy with vinyl. At that age, with this whole idea of music being fresh for the picking, what sorts of things did you like to do and like to eat to get you in the zone for performing and set building?

Josh: Yeah, I bought my Technics when I was around 13. I don’t think I really knew what I wanted to do, just that I seen scratch DJs and it seemed like a really fun thing to do. For the first year or two, I had set my stuff up on a pair of rickety tables in my living room and tried to make a point of playing around with beat juggles and stuff after school every day. That was like, 8th or 9th grade, so I was probably still eating a lot of hot pockets and frozen snack food like that; I can’t say that it helped my creative process at all. Set-building, beat-making, none of that was even on my radar at that point, it was just digging for cool records and trying to learn to scratch.

HB: Lately, you made a move to more Electro influenced music. What sparked the switch? Was it something you ate?

Josh: After two or three years of that, two things occurred. First, I started to realize that I just wasn’t that good at scratching. I remember going to this DJ battle at Guitar Center (with my mom, since I still couldn’t drive at the time) and whatever routine I had brought with me just bombed. I was trying to work in like ten different records into a two-minute set and I just wasn’t prepared enough. Somewhere in there though, I pulled off a blend of sorts with Wake Me Up Before You Go Go (Zoolander had come out around this time and I must have thought I was the man for owning the 12”) - after the event, one of the few real battle DJs there gave me props for it and asked why I was there. I didn’t really have an answer, and it was around then that the idea of going a different direction came up.

The second thing that happened around this time was that I got my hands on two mixes that really flipped my whole perception of dance music upside down. First was a copy of Z-Trip and DJ P’s mixtape “Uneasy Listening”. I was devouring hip-hop oriented mixtapes left and right, but this one blew everything anyone else was doing out of the water. They had the programming, the blends (mashups weren’t always called mashups), the scratching. It was the kind of mix you could party to but was equally impressive to listen to at home. The second was Basement Jaxx’s essential mix for Radio 1 from 1999. It was my first real exposure to UK garage and the kind of funky/jacking house that most people are on today.

Now, I play a pretty eclectic array of genres: house, electro, disco, dubstep, jungle, disco, kuduro, tech/minimal…I like club music with some depth. I think those two mixes really influenced that shift in mentality more than anything else. When electro came along, it was a natural progression, but genres come in waves; I’m definitely looking beyond electro.




HB: So, I’ve heard Tacosaurus (everyone should go check it out on Josh’s soundcloud, it’s dope). And I assume you were heavily influenced by Mexican food and living in the mission neighborhood for that one. But what sorts of things are you eating these days as you are amping up the production game?

Josh: Haha, yeah, the name Tacosaurus was definitely influenced by all the Mexican food in the Bay Area. I grew up in Massachusetts, so to suddenly have super good taquerias around every corner was a really nice change for me. As for the song itself, I look at it as more of an experiment for me in making more synth-centric music; I guess the goofy name was supposed to signal that I wasn’t taking it too seriously. In the time since I made that (and moved back east to finish school), I’ve finished a considerably more refined remix than I’ve done before (http://soundcloud.com/electric-mayhem/wheres-your-head-at-josh-stansfields-electric-mayhem-remix). I wasn’t really thinking that ambitiously at first, but in retrospect, it’s always cool to remix legendary songs in a new way.

HB: Dude, thanks so much for the interview. I cannot wait to see what’s in store for the next harvest season. All the best with your Fall production.

Lexx

Lexx has designed for some of the most legit and sick things going down in many places in the Urban Art World. You really don’t even know. It’s a real honor to get to hang out this afternoon. 

Farmer B: Lexx, first, on behalf of The Farmers Block, thank you. Second, your shit is so legit. It seems like these days you have a lot of work and designing on your plate (yup, pun intended). What I’d like to know is what is it that you like to have in the morning on a heavy loaded design day?

Lexx: Well, I guess most people would say coffee. But versus coffee, if I go down the street and make the extra effort to get carrot juice I feel like my designing days are so much stronger and better. Cafe International is the place to go. Everything they do is super legit.

Farmer B: Please check out this sick community arts program Lexx is helping develop. It’s really compelling stuff and such a fantastic hip-hop culture based community outreach to youth through art and design.

http://ashlandyouthcenterproject.org/

Shawn Whisenant

Shawn has been tearing it up in the Bay Area Urban Art scene for 15 years. He is an amazing character, an even more talented artist and just a really great guy. His art draws on his environment, Bay Life, other great artists and friends in the hustle and struggle.

Farmer B: Shawn, first and foremost, I am a huge fan of your work. You’ve been going hard for a long time doing what you do with a passion and emphasis on purity of springing from the streets and hip hop life of the Bay Art world. What I’d like to know is what has been a food that you started eating when you started off with art that you would recommended to readers, writers and artists out there?

Shawn Whisenant: Red beans and rice fills my tummy. It’s been my kick lately and for a long time. It’s good, it’s healthy and it’s easy to make. When I can, I try to use local and organic rice and beans and farms that are considerate of charity and organizations that promote wellness and health. I have my own seasons I like to use. But there are so many great ways to season rice and beans too.

Farmer B: Well, I hope to hear back on that recipe. In the mean time please Check out Shawn’s blog. It’s great: http://www.akotheemptyobjects.blogspot.com/

Upon closer inspection of the flavorful dinner Taso prepared. I asked him what it was that was banging the taste levels out the roof. He let me in on the secret: xenia extra virgin olive oil

http://www.greek-olive-oil.com/xenia/

http://soundcloud.com/taso