Preview
Joey Guerra
Entertainment Editor
For all you so-cool-it-hurts clubsters and cynical-'cause-it's cooler music lovers who whine and moan about the lack of a truly cutting-edge scene in Houston - heads up. The ultra-chic Ninja Tune label is bringing its latest major-city tour to little old Houston.
Billed as the label's most extensive tour yet, the 21-city Funkungfusion Tour kicked off March 30 in Vancouver. It features, in varying combinations, every artist who records for the Ninja Tune label, and it promises to be one hell of a groovin' ride.
Headlining the tour are four acts including Chocolate Weasels, DJ Vadim, Neotropic and Ollie and Jake of The Herbaliser. Appearing exclusively in Phoenix and Houston are Z-Trip and Emil of the Bombshelter DJs.
Vadim, whose music sets out to prove "you don't always have to jump around to have a good time," is a Russian-born hip-hop master. Along with running his Jazz Fudge record label, he's self-professed ringleader of the Stop R&B Killing Hip-Hop Movement.
Marc Royal and Chris Stevens, collectively known as Chocolate Weasels, introduce funk, rock and Afro-rhythms into the hip-hop mix. Royal is also known as U.K. drum-n-bass producer T-Power, under which he released Further Self-Evident Truths.
The Funkungfusion Tour hits the seemingly-defunct Power Tools, 709 Franklin, tonight at the regular witching hour. Just on the outskirts of the "Look! I am renovated!" downtown Houston.