Louis Gaston at The Viper Room 5/9/12

Fake Four Fest at Echoplex 2/24/11

The Echoplex served as the platform for an epic event in independent hip hop history Thursday night. Fake Four Fest was poppin with a diverse line up of 14 different artists. It all kicked off at 6pm so by about 11pm the crowd was pretty sloppy (along with some of the rappers too.)

K-the-I??? was wrapping up his set at about 7pm following Open Mike Eagle and Mad Gregs. DJ Factor and Gregory Pepper are the two parts that make up Common Grackle who graced the stage next. Gregory rocked out on the Korg and keys and belted out lyrics ala James Murphy while DJ Factor laid down the booming backbeats. They will meet you at the intersection of indie and hip hop whenever you want.



Common Grackle

Next up was Philly native ICON The Mic King who’s super energetic set got the crowd all stirred up and ready to pop. He did this found object freestyle where he asked people in the crowd to hand items up on stage after he tied a t-shirt around his eyes. ICON The Mic King proceeded to flow effortlessly about chapstick, a tampon, someone’s boot, Vaseline, and an empty can of beer. A great party trick!

The multi-instrumentalist Cars and Trains from Portland slowed things down a bit, which lost some interest from the masses. He still provided a killer set banged out with loops of acoustic guitar, MPC, xylophone, a melodica (keyboard harmonica), and his trusted Mac. Watching him create the sound is half of the fun and he is incredibly talented to boot.

Dark Time Sunshine brought a new tangible energy to the stage. Onry Ozzborn of Grayskull was backed by Chicago based producer Zavala and they came together seamlessly. Like lyrical velvet lyered on top of a bed of electro sci-fi fat drum & bass beats. The crowd was quickly enamored with Dark Time Sunshine.



Dark Time Sunshine

The night really started to take off when Ceschi & Anonymous Inc. hit the stage. Ceschi Ramos founder of Fake Four Inc. record label sat in a chair with a guitar and was backed by a full band. He is the man that orchestrated the Fake Four Fest and anyone can see how much he loves music when you watch him play. Ceschi’s abilities as a singer, songwriter, and rapper are apparent if you pay attention to the epic tales he spins with each song.



Ceschi & Anonymous Inc.



Gregory Pepper, AWOL One, and Ceschi

“I came up from San Diego just to see Astronautalis” a girl in the crowd said as she pushed her way up to the front. His rich, thick and raspy vocals are reminiscent of Tom Waits. Seattle based Charles Bothwell’s spastic spirit moves his dedicated followers as he shakes and gyrates across the stage. Incredible passion pours out of him while rapping in a screeching preacher-like style.



Astronautalis

Sole and The Skywriter band killed it. You can pretty much always count on Sole for a thought provoking and emotionally charged show. He definitely delivered. By the end of his set it looked like he had just stepped out of the shower. He was drenched in sweat and left a little piece of himself with the fans that night.

The Shape Shifters are skilled at commanding a crowd and pumping them full of electric energy. They almost make it look easy. The whole crew jumped around on stage feverishly rappin their hearts out. Talent and style are limitless with these guys. At about 1:00a.m. the crowd was chompin at the bit waiting for Freestyle Fellowship.

The Los Angeles legends of independent hip hop were on fire when they hit the stage. Their set wasn’t very long, but they left everything they had up on the stage that night. You can tell that Freestyle Fellowship is bound like brothers when you watch the dynamic show they put on. Their lyrics filled the air as fans sang along to every word.

And as quickly as it began, it was over. People abruptly poured out of the Echoplex as soon as Freestyle Fellowship wrapped up. If you missed this event then you were sleepin. Make sure you get to the next Fake Four Fest. Hopefully there will be another one soon.

Har Mar Superstar and P.O.S. at Satellite 2/18/11

It was one of those rare rainy Friday nights in Los Angeles, but we decided to head out to Spaceland (now known as Satellite) in spite of our innate Angelino fear of precipitation. The main objective was to see Twin Cities native POS or Pissed Off Stef (Stephan Alexander) who is a part of the Rhymesayers Entertainment family and a founding member of the Doomtree label/collective.

P.O.S. is a Minneapolis native with musical roots planted in punk rock. After an initial hostility towards hip-hop, Stefon quickly graduated to rap as a musical expression and outlet. POS has an alternative approach to hip hop music. Sampling punk rock bands and drum & bass loops masterfully mixed into diverse beats with luscious lyrics laid on thick.

Har Mar Superstar was the other main act that night and he is holdin down a residency at Satellite until the end of February. Minnesota born Sean Tillman is Har Mar Superstar. A live band made up of a local guitar player, bassist, and drummer backed him on stage. Sean looks like a mix between a young Ron Jeremy and Jon Lovitz, the antithesis of a leading man. And in spite of his looks he has an incredible commanding presence and a confidence that is apparent with each note he hits.


Har Mar Superstar

Little did we know that this Jackson 5 inspired soul funk deliciousness would wind up with Har Mar Superstar parading around in his Paul Frank briefs. Jumping back and forth between humping the speakers and waving his junk in the faces of those in the front row. Super danceable, fun, and incredibly entertaining all together. And surprisingly, the ladies (and the fellas) love Har Mar!


Har Mar Superstar

Har Mar Superstar was a tough act to follow, but P.O.S. and Mike Mictlan of Doomtree were headlining that night. They bounced around on stage and basically took turns doing their own songs as well as a few together. Their emotionally charged lyrics were captivating and the crowd was singing the songs as soon as the beat dropped. Large grins graced the faces of P.O.S. and Mike Mictlan while they could tell they were amongst the diehard fans that night. They knocked it out the park and left everyone wanting more.


P.O.S. and Mike Mictlan

P.O.S. is in LA finishing up a new album this week. Hopefully this means that he will be touring again soon when the album drops. If you’re a fan of underground or alternative hip hop, you will love P.O.S. In the meantime check out P.O.S.’s last two albums “Never Better” and “Audition.” If you‘re up for something funkalicious, fun and almost comedic, you should go check out Har Mar Superstar with the debut of Samantha Ronson’s live band this Friday September 25. This will close out Har Mar Superstar’s residency at Satellite (Spaceland.)

Yelawolf, Das Racist, Rob Roy and The 87 Stick Up Kids at the Echoplex Feb 2, 2010

Photo by Lee Shaner at Knocksteady.com

First off, if you have never been to the Echoplex (below The Echo) you should hit up a show there for sure. It’s a way better stage set up and layout than The Echo in my opinion. The Echoplex is a really rad smaller venue to catch some up and coming artist before they blow up and start playing at Staples Center.

So the 87 Stick up kids kicked it off with a super dynamic set. I had seen them once before at Crazy Girls in Hollywood and that was when I fell in love with the boys. They are explosive on stage and have an incredibly infectious energy. The bass is always loud & thick and makes me wanna shake my booty. Not to mention the clever lyrics and stylish flow delivered by Squish, Deacon, Nashville and DJ Rockwell. The three strippers on stage were like the cherry on top.

Rob Roy slowed things down a bit with a more soul filled R&B flavor in his slick ass suit. The live drummer gave a special pop and flare to his presence. His voice is like warm honey layered over some sexy beats.

Having heard a lot about Das Racist, this was the first time I was hearing them. They were good, but they seemed a bit tired or drunk or something. Their producer, Diplo, was up on stage reppin and dancin. Their quick-witted lyrics were crackin me up. You could tell Himanshu Kumar Suri, Victor Vazquez and Ashok Kondabolu were having fun.

And finally Yelawolf came on stage with mad photographers crowding the side of the stage to snap a shot of this crazy talented Alabama native. His flow is fast like a Chevy and smooth like whisky, two of Yela’s favorite things. You can feel the “Heart of Dixie” reach out, shake you up and pull you right into Catfish Billy’s world. Everyone was throwin their hands up, singing along and shakin their moneymakers. His distinctive southern drawl is hypnotic and makes your skin tingle. Yelawolf’s raw style and unapologetic lyrics are what set him apart from other rappers and put him somewhere close to Eminem. It's no wonder that he just signed with Shady Aftermath.

If you didn’t catch him in LA you can still cop tickets to the show in Costa Mesa at the Detroit bar Feb. 3 on ticketweb.com (see post below.)

Check it out on TicketWeb - Yelawolf at Detroit Bar on 02/03/11

Check it out on TicketWeb - Yelawolf at Detroit Bar on 02/03/11

Phantogram and Abe Vigoda own my face!

I can’t remember the last time I felt like a teenager consumed by a song with the desire to listen to it over and over again on repeat. Completely obsessed with each note and every word. At the moment there are two songs that have turned me into an obsessed teenage girl again. Repeating Angel on the Crush album by Abe Vigoda and You Are the Ocean on the Eyelid Movies album by Phantogram.



Phantogram crossed my path this summer when I went to the Toyota Antics and FILTER Culture Collide block party in Echo Park. I had no idea who they were, but they happened to be on right after White Lies so I stuck around. The larger than life funky sonic beat filled the air and there was no escaping it. Without warning I began to dance and couldn’t stop till their set was over. Sara Barthel and Josh Carter are the two parts that make up this dynamic Saratoga Springs duo. She sounds like an angel with delicate melodies dancing on her tongue while she pounds on a keyboard making it appear exceptionally punk rock. And he sounds oddly intriguing, a bit like a mix between Peter Gabriel and Kurt Cobain, while he slovenly strums the guitar and beats the MPC pad occasionally. They stole my heart while I was completely unaware that day. That evening I went home and bought Eyelid Movies and I haven’t stopped listening to it and sharing it with friends ever since then. You Are the Ocean is the one song that I listen to on repeat with headphones in while lying on my bed like a teenage girl. Similar to the way I behaved when I first discovered The Pixies album Doolittle.





As for Abe Vigoda, I had been hearing about them for years and never really checked out any of their stuff until a few months ago. I listened to several albums, but it was their most recent release, Crush, that really caught my ears. A local Los Angeles band and a product of The Smell in downtown. Michael Vidal, Juan Velazquez, David Reichardt and Dane Chadwick make up Abe Vigoda. Mix equal parts of David Bowie and New Order to create the electro pop rocks cocktail that drips down your ears like warm honey. The song Thowing Shade is what first got my attention on this album. It starts off with an up tempo electro synth beat and vocals that tease you and draw you in as the song builds into a waterfall of sound that envelopes you. The production on the Crush album is clean and precise without sounding too polished. Keeping the gritty roots of this experimental noise band alive in their evolution. The song Repeating Angel sounds like something that belongs in a John Hughes movie. I may never grow tired of this song.

Living life the Rhymesayers way! An interview with Sean Daley aka Slug of Atmosphere

It’s a crisp clear afternoon in the beach town of Santa Cruz California on Wednesday September 29 and the farmers market is in full swing. This is where you will find 38-year-old Sean Daley, aka Slug, one of underground hip hop’s reluctant champions sauntering through the crowd looking for something to eat before his sold out show at The Catalyst. He finally settles on the vegetarian crepe for lunch as people walking by smile at him and stop to say “what’s up” as if he were their neighbor.

Rapper Slug is one of the founding members of the emotionally charged underground hip hop group Atmosphere. DJ/Producer Anthony Davis, Ant, guitarist Nate Collis and keyboard player Eric Anderson form the rest of what is now known as Atmosphere. After taking a year long hiatus from touring the group decided to put out some more music for the fans. On September 7, Slug’s birthday, they released the double EP To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy.

“We knew our next record was going to come out in the spring, like our next real record,” says Slug. “We wanted to do something that wasn’t going to be considered a real record, just music. But I think that happens to us on a regular basis. We start to get neurotic about not having new material out there for people to (pause) hate.”

The music on To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy was inspired by a photo book coming out this fall called Seven Years on The Road with Atmosphere by photographer Dan Monick. Dan asked the group to put together a set of songs for a 10-inch record to go with the book and the six songs for the EP turned into an entire album that spawned the current tour.

“We were just due for another tour, I mean we took a year off to go make babies and to make music,” says Slug. “Since I started touring this is the first time I ever really had a full year to stay off the road and I wanted to take another year off, but it was too late, the tour was already booked. I just wanted to stay home and keep makin’ more music.”

On tour with Atmosphere are Grieves and Budo from Seattle, Blueprint from Columbus, and DJ Raregroves from Cincinnati who are all a part of the Rhymesayers crew. Slug along with his partner Siddiq, Brent Sayers, make up the bedrock of the do-it-yourself hip hop empire that is Rhymesayers Entertainment. Through a series of baby steps, common sense, and an incredible work ethic the independent label has become a driving force in the underground hip hop world.

“There’s such a family way that we did things (in Rhymesayers) where we stayed true to each other and stayed true to this unified goal,” says Slug. “In the long run, I think there’s something to be said for that for people who have similar goals. I feel like we did things the way that history never even had an example of. We didn’t do things the business way. I want to learn how to take the things we did with Rhymesayers and apply them to everything else in my life, even like fixing the exterior of my house. I wanna do it the Rhymesayers way. Common sense, baby steps, get it done, so I can step back and be like ‘ah, look what I did’.”

Slug has an incredible air of humility about him that only someone with his grassroots background could possess. He grew up in south Minneapolis and is firmly planted there now and forever. Slug is “every man” and the essence of good, hard working people is exactly what he pours into every song he makes. When you listen to songs like ‘The Best Day’ and ‘Freefallin’ on the To All My Friends album you can easily picture Sean Daley (Slug) as the guy next door or your quirky co-worker.

Having grown up in a working class American family in the same neighborhood that he lives in now, Slug describes himself as “common.” Both his parents worked in a factory and got divorced when he was 11 years old. His childhood was magical and tragic all at the same time.

“Being from south Minneapolis in a neighborhood that grabbed on to hip hop music in the early 80’s, I think all of the kids in my neighborhood were affected,” says Slug. “It was a neighborhood thing. We all had to submit to it, it was like a gang…hip hop was like our gang. I just happen to be one of the ones that still, at 38-years-old, listens to it much less makes hip hop music.”

Music is a big part of the Daley household because everybody in the house appreciates it. Even the new baby knows that he loves music.

“Aside from family and friends I’m not sure what’s meaningful to me anymore besides music,” says Slug. “I don’t have any hobbies anymore. I don’t even care about collecting records anymore even though I’ve got a huge record collection. I’ve been collecting music and spending all of my time and energy on music since I was 11. But now that it’s become like a career there’s so much more thought put into it than just being an advocate or a fan of music that it kind of consumes everything.”

Atmosphere has a cult following of fans who have become like family over the last ten years. The tour stops for the “To All My Friends” tour were focused on some mid-western towns and some smaller west coast towns. Serving as a dedication to cities that have always been there for Atmosphere even when nobody in the major markets cared about them. This tour was really focused on the cities where they built their original friendships.

“I see a lot of familiar faces at the shows, but I’ve seen them get older now,” says Slug. “I’ve seen some of these faces for eight years and then there’s always some new faces too.”

Many people have pulled strength from Slug’s raw and penetrating lyrics to get them through troublesome times in life. There is a humanness that is effortlessly portrayed in the stories he tells with a backbone of palpable earthy beats fine-tuned by Ant, Nate and Eric. This combination produces some of the most innovative underground hip hop that is currently out there.

“I think that some kids might grab on to songs just like all of us as kids did,” says Slug. “We grabbed on to certain songs and they helped us get through some of the tough times when I was a kid. I think now that I’m on this side of the dichotomy, I kind of look at it like, it’s not really me that helped you…you helped you. You just put a few things in your pocket to take with you. A song, a book, a scene from a movie, but at the end of the day it was you that did it.”

Slug has infused the lyrics of Atmosphere songs with many different messages and themes over the years. Right now his focus is mainly a familial one with an emphasis on new life. He has a very interesting theory on how we can save the planet.

“I don’t know if I have one message because it changes. It changes every week, month, I don’t know,” says Slug. “Like right now my message is that people should go make kids especially if they consider themselves to be smarter than the average bear. There’s all this worry about ruining the planet and destroying it or whatever. We’re not really worried about ruining the planet, the planet is gonna be there. We’re just killing the ability for our species to exist on this planet, I mean lets be real. I think the best thing that we can do to ensure the existence of our species is to balance out all the idiots who are having children by making sure some of the smart people have kids too. So I’m gonna get married and have like eight more children, if I can afford it.”

His son Jacob has played an important roll in his song writing throughout his career. Helping Slug to steer clear of subjects that are often approached in mainstream rap like “bitches” and “sellin’ drugs.” Jacob is now 16-years-old and his life has been a strong influence in the more emotional lyrics that Slug writes.

“Jacob is a fan of music and he’s gonna discern what he thinks is good or not,” says Slug. “I’m tryin’ to quietly actively play a role in that without pushing anything on him, but I have to live by example. So that’s why I rap about the shit I rap about, because I have kids.”

Being in his late thirties and a father of two, Slug is no stranger to the strains of living a full life. You may think that limp in his step is just his swagger, but he really does have some lower back pain to contend with. Just like all of us when we start to rack up the years.

“When I’m on stage, I guess it’s adrenaline,” says Slug. “But any headache, hip pain, lower back ache, ankle pain…it all goes away. It’s like the healer of all ailments and it’s just a lot of fun. I like to see people smile and put their hands in the air.”

Slug finds a fountain of youth in his onstage performance. A feeling that he can’t get anywhere else. There is a definite progression in his lyrics that seems to be directly linked to his maturity.

“I think my music has become more direct and straight forward,” says Slug. “I’m really trying to communicate points. I’m not as ambiguous as I used to be and a lot of that is based off of the fact that I’m getting older and hopefully wiser and trying to live by example.”

The album To All My Friends, Blood Makes The Blade Holy is peppered with conflict and cynical views on friendship. The song ‘The Major Leagues’ depicts a dream lost and traded for a life of drug addiction from the perspective of a helpless friend. While ‘The Loser Wins’ speaks freely about gettin’ burned by a friend and cutting ties, no second chances. It makes you curious about what kind of company Slug keeps.

“Most of the songs I do are generally inspired by a handful of experiences that I’ll take and meld into one story in order to create one point,” says Slug. “The negative tracks are from the 10-inch called ‘Blood Makes The Blade Holy’, we tried to be clever with that. My friend circle is like four people. It’s very tight knit, very close.”

Slug will continue to mold his experiences into new lyrics and produce music with the Atmosphere crew for as long as he possibly can. While he doesn’t know what the future holds for hip hop or Atmosphere he certainly plans to stick around.

“I’ve never really had an idea of what the music should look like in the future for us,” says Slug. “It’s kind of been a learn as you go experience. I think with the music that we write, record, and make, a big part of it is that we all are looking for growth out of each other. And a lot of times that growth might not even be synonymous with the growth of the culture or where raps is going or where music is going. It’s more so just growth that we’re trying to identify and acknowledge in each other just within the friendship. I think that’s kind of been our thing for a while and I would say…so far so good.”

Show at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, CA September 29: