PANTyRAiD at the Howlin' Wolf

I was one of those guys back in middle school who, when asked what music I liked, would say "everything but rap." Now all I like is rap, (or hip-hop if you prefer). I'm not talking about your common or your mos def--they're all right, I guess--I'm talking about gangster pimp shit, the more references to "Hennessey" and "slappin bitches" the better. This isn't a joke, there's something so unpretentious and likable about this type of music that I can't really take any other genre seriously. Who the fuck actually listens to rock music anymore? Not me.

Which is why I loved the PANTyRAiD show at the Howlin Wolf so much. I must've heard Lil Jon's "WHAT" sampled like 15 times. They sounded great. But of course they did. Individually they're my two favorite producers, and it's not like it's hard to DJ. For those who don't know, PANTyRAiD is two producers/DJs, Marty Folb aka MartyParty and Josh Mayer aka Ooah. MartyParty was the guy wearing the objectively gay shirt, not that there's anything wrong with that. He's kind of a black swan among his peers. He's older, immigrated from South Africa and his day job is as a pretty successful computer programmer--which is pretty dope. Ooah is a New Orleans native. He also spent his set raging with Mike McKenzie's Super Bowl ring. Mike McKenzie also spent nearly an entire hour dancing like an absolute lunatic behind them on stage--glorious.

Now I know it's not rap, but it's not really glitch-hop or dubstep either. In interviews, Marty describes it as "Hip Hop for ladies," but that's pretty misleading too. Their set had it's dark moments sure, but if there's one word I can use to describe PANTyRAiD to distinguish it from every other similar act it's "pimp." It's the swagger of the most opulent self-aggrandizing gangster rap music, with you know, less words and more catchy hooks. Of course there's extremely heavy bass drops, but who doesn't have those? Everyone has "HEAVY BASS" but only PANTyRAiD gives their bass lines a melody that you actually remember.


But what about the actual show. Not to disrespect any DJs out there, but you're expected to put on a good show and if you fuck up no one notices anyway. It's the production that matters. There are a lot of companies in this city that would be expected to put on this kind of show. ActionPacker and Winter Circle Productions immediately come to mind, but this show was put on by Simple Play; an older, lesser-known company. They started way back in 2006 years ago by Ron Richard (who went to high school with Ooah) and their first gigs were hip-hop shows at Shilo and then the Dragon's Den.

Anyway, my major gripe was that I found the sound to be a little weird. Winter Circle's Bassik event sounds a lot better (since it moved to the Republic from the shit-acoustics of the Maison). Their promotions department put a goddamn flyer on my windshield outside The Boot and I still have a bit of it stuck on there. God I hate that. So maybe I was biased. I just didn't feel any sub-bass, but I guess production involves a lot more than how many expensive speakers you've got. It requires taste. And that Simple Play does have. They brought the Givers a few months ago and they're bringing Mochipet (quality glitch-hop) and Spankalicious (who looks really scary and plays equally scary dubstep, though I met him once and he's super nice).

Anyway, we were told that Ooah sticking around town till the end of the month. He has a side-project called Of Porcelain that everyone who writes for this blog has fucked to. So if Simple Play could hook it up, I'd pay $15 to watch him DJ on laptop speakers.

**A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: That fun light set up is owned by Simple Play so you can expect more cool light shows in the future. For more on Simple Play Productions and their upcoming show check out http://sppnola.com/



-Article by Jeff Silberman