IndieArts Festival 2009.

Last year, SD&PDP rocked the inaugural IndieArts Fest at 1pm on the hottest day of the year. PDP Chief-of-Security Petey Wheatstraw had to drag an over-exuberant (and most likely homeless) dancin' fan from the stage, the fellas had a grand ol' time self-censoring in real time once they surveyed the crowd and saw that it was a family-friendly event, and SD refused the sale of PDP t-shirts to a family who wanted them solely so they could soak them, wear them as turbans, and toss them away. That ain't how we roll, I don't care how hot it is. Keep your $10.

We did, however, give away 'nuff merch, including a t-shirt to a down-on-his-luck fan who claimed, "I'm homeless now, but when I had a home, you know, before I lost it, I used to listen to PDP in it all the time."

A week later we saw used-to-have-a-house guy get into a fight outside one of our favorite local watering holes while wearing his Kegstand Poet t-shirt. It was torn to shreds.

Oh well, we tried.

So come make some more nearly-interesting anecdotes with us this Saturday at 5pm. It's outdoors and free, so skip Rock The Bells in Mansfield and go see the House Of Pain reunion at the tour stop in NY on Sunday. Cuz if you high tail it out of Providence, this is what you'll be missing:

The IndieArts Fest is a free arts & music festival located in Greater Kennedy Plaza, beginning at 12:30 PM and running throughout the day until 11:00 PM. IndieArts Fest features over 25 performers on 3 stages including live bands, DJ's, spoken word, and dance. The Red Bull Music Academy hosts one of the stages which features an eclectic mix of DJ’s. In addition to the stage, RBMA will also be running a workshop covering all aspects of music including production, DJ-ing, and the business
of music.

The IndieArts Fest is also home of The Arts Exchange, a bazaar featuring artists, crafters, music, posters, collectables, art objects, food, and beverage. We are proud to host our Indie Brew Beer Garden featuring independent and regional breweries.

Start growing your facial hair so you can compete for prizes in this year's General Burnside's Best Facial Hair Contest. Did you say cat fight?.. Well The Providence Roller Derby will be bringing a specially arranged bout to this year's festival. Before the Derby, test out your ability to skate in the Fountain of Youth Skate Park. After dusk, ACME Video, a local staple of Independent film, will be hosting a film showcase in Grant's Block.

Learn more about the excellent all-day-and night festival here: indieartsfest.com

Here's the write-up on PDP on the IndieArts website:

Poorly Drawn People at IndieArts Fest, July 18


Poorly Drawn People is a social club for gentlemen of leisure. Members include Storm Davis, Reason, Dox, Entity, and DJ Sterbyrock.

PDP are renowned for their capacity to enjoy outings, robust libations, the companionship of sharp-witted and randy ladyfriends, and a well-prepared eggplant dish.

PDP will, on occasion, craft a collection of rap songs possessing such musical significance that peers, professionals, and rivals are driven to eventually acknowledge its existence. Begrudgingly.

PDP have made award-winning albums, many, many mistakes, and a great impression on your mother that one time. Tell her we said hello.

PDP is furious, melodic 21st-century boom bap, and/or, party rap records for when the party is over.

IndieArts Fest attendees can catch Poorly Drawn People on the Fringe Stage at Burnside Park from 5:00 to 6:00 PM. In the meantime, they can find more about the band at their website and Myspace.

Click here to see it with pretty pictures.

The Providence Phoenix gives a plug to the festival and gives us a lil love at the same time:

SATURDAY's big news would be the 2nd annual INDIEARTS FEST invading Kennedy Plaza: three stages, two dozen artists, and 11 hours of free music starting around noon at Burnside Park, including top-shelf acts TRIANGLE FOREST, POORLY DRAWN PEOPLE, SENSITIVE HEARTS (formerly the Awesome Bros.), and CHINESE STARS, to name a few. RSVP at IndieArtsFest.com and receive a free MP3 bundle of IndieArts artists. And did we mention admission is FREE all day?

Evidence can be found here.

Invincible.

There's plenty of tribute out there for you to peruse, so I'll keep this as short as possible.

My first record was Michael Jackson's Thriller, a reward that was the result of a deal I'd struck with my devout-Catholic parents in grade ahemkoffkoff back in 1983. A quarter of straight A's for one slab of black-person disco. Because of their close-to-fanatical interpretation of the Church's teachings and, therefore, the absolute ban placed on any and all forms of rock n' roll (as all popular music was deemed), I get a late pass on this generation-defining album.

Up until then, I had gotten my Michael fix from sneaks of MTV whenever we could afford to have cable turned on, mostly in the form of the "Beat It" video, which is probably why the track remains one of my top 3 from his catalog to this day. I shoplifted a copy of "The Michael Jackson Story" by Nelson George from a Scholastic book fair at school, and read it cover to cover, over and over. I even dug it out of the archives to do a book report for an English class in 1986, years after the shine of Michael's ubiquity had faded.

Bad helped get me through a particularly bad semester when I was exiled to a local all-boys school, and by Dangerous, Michael had just become a standard, an old favorite that was a pop staple in a music collection that had grown to become almost exclusively stocked with hip hop and heavy metal. I did geek out a bit whenever he rocked with Slash from Guns N' Roses, and bumped the Fugees remix of "2Bad" (off of HIStory) with the John Forte rap verse. I discovered Off The Wall properly for the first time as I began DJing, but MJ had become someone to take for granted, no longer a must-check as the music world became bigger and bigger through college and the beginning of my own small career in da biz. I copped Invincible out of loyalty, for the same reason I still buy records by any number of acts from youth: They were there for me when I needed them, and if my ten bucks can do the same for them in a time when most of them have been abandoned by all my friends who "grew up," then I'm glad to do it.

I've already gone on too long.

I tuned out during most of the scandal, but sadly, it seems the great majority of it was for good reason. Specifics of guilt aside, he was a troubled man who came from troubled beginnings and lived a life whose pressures would have felled many of us much quicker. Some have no place for empathy or sympathy for such a figure; I'm not one of those people. He gave me too much, so even if I can't necessarily give him the benefit of the doubt, I can give him what he gave me: support. Michael Jackson was my gateway to music, and music became what has propped me up in some of the most difficult times of my life. Without question, I owe him one.

I only hope that wherever he is, he can find the one thing he could never seem to while he was here: peace. May he finally rest in it.

Click here to download the "2Bad (Refugee Camp Remix)" featuring John Forte

Vote Early, Vote Often

It's that time of year again... and there seems to be a little more time to vote, so here goes:

Our crew of rascally rap personalities have once again been nominated by the local arts paper-of-record as the most phenomenal rap act in the galaxy.

And we hope you agree with them.

If not, bribery can be arranged. But either way, we need your vote.

It's easy and quick. Here's the drill:

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Click here: http://thephoenix.com/BMP/Providence/vote/HipHopAct/

Click next to "Poorly Drawn People"

Click "Submit Vote" below the list of nominees

Click "Cast Your Ballot" (next to "You Have Successfully Voted") - unless you prefer to continue voting in other categories*

This will take you to a page where you can review your selections.

Fill in your name and email address (they don't spam you, we promise), and click "Cast Your Ballot"

DONE!

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(unless you have multiple email addresses you can use for voter fraud, that is).

If you plan to vote, please do so as soon as possible. Polls close soon.

And feel free to forward to everyone you know that we don't. They'll grow to love us in the future, we promise. But we'll take their votes now.

We very much appreciate your help with this. We would really like to be able to use the phrase "threepeat" with a straight face.

thanks&love
Storm Davis
PDP

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*If you're looking for suggestions for other acts to vote for, may we suggest these friends-of-PDP:

Best Blues/R&B Act: WHALEBONE JACKSON
Best DJ/Electronica: DJ STERBYROCK
Best Act: SIX STAR GENERAL
Best Breakthrough Act: SEXCOFFEE
Best Male Vocalist: JOHNNY CARLEVALE
Best Female Vocalist: LEAH CARLSON
Best Singer-Songwriter Act: MARY BEE
Best Album: SIX STAR GENERAL "Spaceship to Planet Cookie"
Best Song: THEO "Say It Right"

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Basement Flava.

Unless you were one of the throngs who paid extra wide cash to peep us at Lupo's on Cinco De Mayo, it's been two months since you were able to see us do our little song-and-dance in Providence. We apologize for neglecting you so long, we figured we could use a dose of anticipation-building 'round these parts.

But wait no longer.

SATURDAY JUNE 20
LOCAL 121 - SPEAKEASY (downstairs)
121 Washington St
Providence RI
$5 / 21+ / Doors 10pm

POORLY DRAWN PEOPLE
[Storm Davis / Reason / Dox]
DEZMATIC & SEEZMICS
DOOMFIST
hosted by CAS UNO & ESH of Labeless Illtelligence

Plus old school classics to nod ya head to (and such) provided by a rotating crew of deejays, all in the cozy confines of 121's underground Speakeasy area.

SeezMics is the homie from Educated Consumers (you may have seen him rock solo at Dox's Excursions night at Tazza a few months back, or caught them with us and Eyedea & Abilities last year at the late, great Living room). Dezmatic is Seez's homie from Albany NY, and Doomfist are Dez's peoples. You know Cas & Esh from all over the place, most recently from joining the party that is Motion Not Emotion. It's all rather Kevin Bacon-esque. And entertaining as fuck. Come have some fun with us.

tap tap tap.

Tap The Bottle is PDP's monthly celebration of long-ago classics, large bottled beers, and just how obnoxiously excellent we all think we are, held every 30 days at the recently-crowned 'Best Bar in Providence', Local 121. And it's time for the June edition.

Saturday June 13 2009
Dox of PDP & DJ Save 1 present
TAP THE BOTTLE
Local 121
121 Washington St
Providence RI
21+ / 11pm-2am / FREE

I don't even remember what happened at the May installment. But April? Well...


So in the wake of beating everyone in town about the head regarding the release of, and release show for, the new Poorly Drawn People CD Motion Not Emotion, we forgot to promote the April edition of Dox & DJ Save One's Tap The Bottle.

Anyway, we dropped the ball and forgot to tell people. Here's what happened:



CUZ THAS HOW WE LIVIN.

We've been living other ways, too. Pause. Up to bunches of other whatnot, hence the sparse nature of our online updates as of late. Such as? Such as:

We hit the road with Maryland's SeezMics of Educated Consumers and Dezmatic from Albany, enjoyed marquee status at the Lucky Dog in Worcester courtesy of our old friends RADIx, rocked for over 1000 of our closest friends in Providence with Mickey Avalon & Schwayze, making a new close friend in the process in Beardo (he's so easy to fall in love with it's just plain silly), got some nice press for Motion Not Emotion. At Tazza Caffe, Dox hosted the release party for the first ever disc out of Falside's Digsafe Records, the Dirty Hank Class Act mixtape; we threw a birthday bash for Gemini slangsters Reason & Storm Davis at the PDP Mansion North that was so successful that everyone has had to patch together a collective mosaic of memory to describe what actually happened that evening.

PDP once again has been nominated as Best Hip Hop Act in Providence by the Providence Pheonix in their yearly Best Music Poll (vote here), along with our brethren Labeless Illtelligence, Jon Hope, Chachi, and Romen Rok, while PDP DJ Sterbyrock looks to bring home the Best DJ prize. Oh yeah, and Reason has been working like a madman on his new album, Deconstructing Passive, while Storm & Dox meander towards the general vicinity of the finish line on the better-be-a-masterpiece Robot Rock & Necktie Blues, known in certain parts of the blogosphere as PDP's own lil Chinese Democracy.

But we'll try to catch you up with some details on all of this soon, and not be such strangers. But really, it doesn't get much stranger, does it? So no promises.

A Rap-Rock Night, Minus The Fred Durst.

Friends-of-PDP Furlong (featuring Bill Bell of the late, great Storm Davis & His Spectacular 777 live band experiment) invited us to perform alongside them and fellow rockers Hush, Darling at The Blackstone in Pawtucket.

So we said: Sure.

And when we ask you to come nod along, you should say the same.

Whiteboy rappers + pop/rock/alternative bands. It'll be just like sitting in your car listening to WBRU. Except with booze. So it'll be just like sitting in our car listening to WBRU.

Friday April 24 2009
FURLONG
POORLY DRAWN PEOPLE
HUSH, DARLING
with sounds provided by
DJ STERBYROCK

The Blackstone
1005 Main St
Pawtucket RI
www.blackstoneclub.com
$5 / doors 9pm / 21+

Excursions 2: Dox / Educated Consumers / Labeless.

The second installment of PDP producer/deejay Dox's Excursions at Tazza, wherein he spins the classics from the old school and underground alike. A special bonus this month: live performances from friends-of-PDP Educated Consumers, who trek all the way from Maryland to rock for you Providence types; and Labeless Illtelligence (Cas Uno & Esh The Monolith), just so you know you're in familiar territory.

Stop by and vibe out with us, and pick up your copy of Motion Not Emotion if you've somehow missed it.