shanathan:

Because I don’t know how to deal with things any other way, here is the first early release of a track from the Peasants & Kings album I’m doing with my friends in the TickleBomb Orchestra.

I’ll never forget, she died an hour after Thanksgiving came to a close in 2010.  I had a studio session with my dear old friend and New Alliance’s audio ninja Jonathan Taft the next morning.  I got there and said “My mom died last night”.  He said “What the fuck are you doing here?” and I said “What the fuck else am I going to do?”

Shane Hall was my co-pilot during my set at Flamingo Cantina.  He set up the echo mic, hit as much backup as humanly possible, and kicked his verse on a new song we’re doing together that may or may not be called “Prometheus.”

My beard was decorated with little flower clips just prior to showtime by the one and only Cocky Lou, lead triangle player of Charlotte, NC’s ThoughtCriminals.

I said she was like the Jimi Hendrix of the triangle… Shane corroborated, exclaiming, “She has her equilateral set up to be played isosceles-style!”

Dispatch from Day 6 of SXSW

Today I ate nothing for a long time by accident, then some pretty good but super heavy fried chicken from Church’s, and a few hours later two slices of pepperoni pizza from Homeslice on Congress.  The logo of the spot kind of looks like me as a fictional kid, I’ll post the photo I took when I can retrieve it from my incommunicado Canadian telephone.

Okay look here it is:
 

In the early afternoon, Backburner performed as part of the Droppin’ Science Productions showcase at the Canadian Blast event at SXSW, and we also picked up our last few scenes for the internet sitcom in which we are appearing.  More on that as it develops?

I was hastily retrieved from the bar by Shane Hall & accomplice Cocky Lou, who whisked me away to a place called “Metropolis,” just outside of downtown.  I backed Shane up while he performed to a bunch of sunning indie rap aficionadoes dangling their little feet in a giant swimming pool and hot tub.  We watched our pal Brzowski perform, and a few other cats I didn’t know, and then when the sun went down we saw most of an amazing set by Dark Time Sunshine.

I was bummed that we missed our pal Ceschi and our acquaintance Louis Logic, and later even moreso when I heard from Thesis that I missed even more pals there later (Sole, Bleubird, maybe K-the-I???), but I slipped away to return downtown and see other rap at official SXSW showcases.  Shane made a lot of noise about trying to get in to see Kreayshawn - which I would have joined him at any day I wasn’t trying to pick between other amazing shows! - but I hear he stayed at the Metropolis compound.

I wanted to see El-P perform, dammit, both on his own and as producer for the Killer Mike set (El produced Mike’s whole new record, R.A.P.).  I thought Chokeules was my ally for that show, but he turned out to not be sure.  More or Les brightened once he realized the Killer Mike part of it, but was already torn between trying to see Nas perform Illmatic in its entirety, or M.O.P.

In the end, we all decided that M.O.P. was the least likely to make it into Canada (we’ve all tried to see them before and had it not go off), so we headed on a mission to the club where they were playing, Haven.  Ran into Fresh Kils there.

Onstage when we arrived were Marz Lovejoy and 10ille, two young women rappers who were FUCKING KILLING IT.  They had packed the stage with other young WOC and everyone had a distinct style and they were just mobbing and winding and I was in awe of them.  The rappers were throwing down and I think Marz was more an MC in the Bizzy Bee tradition (albeit more lyrical than THAT), and 10ille was more of a writer.  I’m trying to get a hold of the latter’s mixtapes… she did one with Chuck Inglish of Cool Kids, and seems to have another, newer one, and like… I think I am a new fan times one hundred.

Statik Selektah was DJing for them, which was fine, but he kept DJing after they were off and he talks too much instead of mixing records - he cuts them off and shouts into the mic “YO IF Y’ALL DON’T LOVE THIS RECORD, Y’ALL NEED TO JUMP OUT A FUCKING WINDOW.  FUCKING WEIRDOS, MAN.” then starts the next one, cold.  I don’t need that in my life!  Go take your carefully sculpted beard and practise blends, bud.  Pipe down some.

A crew from NOLA called Jets rapped for what seemed like forever after that.  There were five or six of them, including Smoke DZA, and they were a mess.  They only rap about smoking weed, which I guess makes them the Wiz Khalifa of this year, but also like Wiz they rap over the pre-recorded vocals which is a pathetic shame and makes me want to shoot my ears in the face.  It’s not a grade six talent show!  Get the instrumentals and do a rap show like a grown-up!

Then a band started setting up and we were confused because we expected Mash Out Posse as promised.  I wondered if they were doing that heavy metal thing they did five or six years ago?  Then it was announced that GZA would be performing?  And no mention of M.O.P. ever again?  We got hornswoggled!

And then we got hornsectioned!  Les and I agreed that if we had been presented with the prospect of walking for forty minutes in each direction through the madness of SXSW to see GZA with a live band, we would have desultorily declined.  I’ve seen him twice already and been satisfied; Choke and Les saw him twice at different shows and thought they were phoned-in and uninspired.  But this was AMAZING.

Live band rap is a tricky prospect.  A lot of people think they should play super funky-funk and it winds up too bubbly and Bootsy and happy and dull and sucks.  Other people think they have to play mournfully hard buttrock and it sucks.  What you actually have to do is play music that sounds like the beats hip-hop artists actually create for rapping on, and in this case that meant arranging a lot of RZA classics from Liquid Swords and other mid-90s efforts.  The bari sax made for almost dubstep-style skronking basslines!  The minimoog aped the analog leads and the drummers played tasteful boom bap.  GZA was animated and so evidently inspired that even raw and devastating tracks were uplifting and invigorating.

This seven-foot white dude in St Paddy’s Day finery started elbowing me in the face a lot and I wanted to trip him but I worried that violence would ensue so I kind of sucked it up.  Audiences have been frequently disappointing in their lack of consideration this time around, though.  Shoving, threatening, etc.

Anyway that’s what I did today, pretty much.  Oh except two hotel adventures!

I shall list them in reverse chronological order!

1. More or Les and I were recognized on an elevator in his hotel by a cute young couple (? exuberant boy/girl pairing) who had been to our showcase on Tuesday, who had seen us do the same thing last year, and who knew our names and really like us.  Famous feeling!!
2. Walking into the same hotel with armloads of pizza, we squeezed past Himanshu Suri of Das Racist, whom I thoroughly admire and enjoy in many fora - from rapping to blogging to interview as artform.  I don’t know if I regret not interrupting his egress to tell him how much I respect his perspectives on things and how much his group has revitalized my love for FUN and ANGER in rap music, but I did manage to keep my geeking entirely contained inside.  In fact, since I had never seen him in person before except for during his performance under crazy laser lights on Thursday, I didn’t recognize his face at all - I recognized his famous Panda Bear t-shirt.  I just thought “Hey, that’s the shirt Himanshu always w- GULP!”

I was honoured with the opportunity to force my beloved friend Shane Hall to accept my backing vocals on this song many times on the road last month, but this is my first time hearing the recording and it’s even better!

Go and get it as part of thePawn Takes King compilation on Bandcamp… it also features Busdriver, Esh & Dox, Ceschi, Awol & Factor, HW, Brzowski, and many more… really just a whole wangload of my friends and inspirations.

Oh and what is this free compilation all about?  Those cats are all playing together in Austin, TX, on Saturday, March 17th.  I would be soooo jealous if not for… nope… no, actually… I am anyway.

From left to right: Shane Hall, Jesse Dangerously, HW, and Mikal kHill.

I like how kHill’s arched brow seems to say, “Why yes, I am the beardless wonder. Does that… intrigue you?”

I started writing a blog about all the food I’ve eaten on this tour the other night, but I haven’t finished it yet.

I’m about to play my last show with Shane & kHill for this go-round, at a “hackerspace” called TESLA at 97D Webster Street in Worcester, MA, which not only is a place to hack but has a forge for blacksmiths and kind of intimidates me.  We’re going to rap and play 8-bit video games and be friends.  Thank you, America.

Tomorrow night I’m kicking a solo rap show at a karaoke bar in Syracuse on my way back into Canada.  THAT’S JUST WHAT I DO.  Then it’s mad karaoke all night, obvz.

This is really fun.

It’s true, the rumour you’ve heard… I am venturing out on a United States tour once again!  Shane Hall and Mikal kHill are accompanying me, by which I mean carrying me in their iron horseless carriages from the south on up.

Here are the dates, with a few more still to be shored up:

Feb 3 - Columbia, SC @ Conundrum
(Mikal kHill, Tribe One, cecilnick, Shane Hall & MC Stealth)
Feb 4 - Orlando, FL @ Back Booth
(Jesse Dangerously, MC Wreckshin, Rainbowdragoneyes, Mikal kHill, Shane Hall)
Feb 6 - Charlotte NC @ The Milestone
(ThoughtCriminals, Jesse D, Shane Hall & MC Stealth)
Feb 8 - Baltimore, MD @ Bohemian Cafe
(Collectible Humans, Jesse D & Shane Hall)
Feb 9 - Philadelphia, PA @ Little Bar
(Voss, Sketch Lightly, Mikey Mo, Jesse D & Shane Hall)
Feb 10 - Brooklyn, NY @ moon-ii [319 Rutledge St]
(Schaffer the Darklord, Jesse D, Mikal kHill, & Shane Hall)
Feb 11 - TBA (New England somewhere)
(Jesse D, Mikal kHill, & Shane Hall)

Thanks to Rusty Shackles for the dork-faced poster!  I think I’m Bowser.

HW’s “Shithead” acoustic version; guitar by Shane Hall, human beatbox by Jesse Dangerously.  From the abortive Cleveland stop on our insanely fun “Break A Branch Off The Crazy Tree And Beat Your Dick To Death With It” tour of spring, 2010, where our venue got changed to a Starbucks and we wound up doing a Ustream (and pizza party) in HW’s amazing fan Chris’s apartment before I got on my 3 a.m. plane to Austin for SXSW.

Catch the vibe, ride with it!  Plus get psyched, America, to see me and Shane with Mikal kHill next month, touring up from Orlando through (hopefully) Columbia,Roanoke, Charlotte, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City and Rhode Island or Boston or something.

I like that days three and four of the itinerary are basically Charli Baltimore!

If HW wasn’t such a hateful beast, we’d have him along for this tour, too.  By “hateful beast,” I mean “busy at school.”  But kHill is launching his sad as hell new album, dust., so you’ll be crying too hard to feel sad about anything but the web of misery that permeates all of our thin mortal existences.