Fist Fam, Rec League, Grand Invincible & BPos at the Elbo Room, SF

View From the Front Row, 11/1/11

Backtracking a bit with the View From the Front Rows due to the volume of shows I've been attending recently, but I felt that this one from a week or so ago was definitely worth documenting. Last Tuesday, I forfeited the opportunity to see Prof in order to support the Gurp City homies at their "Panama Jack" Tour Jump-Off/Release Party in San Francisco. There was an all-ages Grieves show at Bottom of the Hill a short distance away, which had a packed crowd and a huge line around the block for it, so I was worried that the turn-out for Fist Fam and them would not be spectacular. Fortunately, the Elbo Room ended up getting fairly crowded with awesome people, including lots of true heads and longtime Gurp City supporters, and the show ended up being a grand old time in typical Rec League fashion. Hell, I even convinced some of my Understudies homies at the Grieves show to pass on the jailbait for a few minutes and check this show out.

BPos were the first group to perform, and they kicked their brand of traditional Cali boom bap well. They started things off by dedicating their set to Occupy Oakland, as the OPD had just broken up the encampments with tear gas and rubber bullets, and BPos' conscious lyrics seemed to speak to the movement well. D-Wiz, Goodword and Johnny Venetti were not as rowdy a live show as some of the other acts on the bill, but they had their verses down flat and barreled through their tracks with a very polished and energetic set. They started fashionably late and didn't have a very large crowd watching them, but it didn't seem to affect the quality of their performance any. Nice opening set.

There were a number of technical difficulties related the functioning of laptops and Serato before Grand Invincible came on, and though the wait was annoying the delay was ultimately worthwhile since the crowd grew substantially during the downtime. When Grand Invincible got the sound working right and were ready to play, they completely nailed it with my favorite set of the night. I'd seen Luke Sick and DJ Eons perform before at a Rec League & Lodeck show a while back and thought that their set was pretty good, but this time around everything just felt way more on point. Luke Sick's gruff vocals and confident laid back delivery felt effortless compared to a lot of the evening's MCs, and the simple loop-based beats complimented his style perfectly. Grand Invincible killed it on songs like "Crucifixion of Your Self" and "The Way We Revolt," but some of the best moments of their set came with unreleased joints that I hadn't heard before, which sounded like some serious heat. A really great performance that showed off Luke Sick's original style and that got me fiending for the new projects from Sacred Hoop and Rhyme Force Most Illin'!

Speaking of Rhyme Force, Rec League were the next to get up on stage and do their thing, all sunglassed out with 3D Star Wars shirts and shit. The details get a little blurry around this point (proof that this was, in fact, a Rec League set), but I do remember it being a damn good time. Some highlights included the always awesome "One More Shot," the Maclane-produced "What's Good," QM's drinking anthem "Party Hard," and the crazy hot bars of Richie Cunning's "1906." Surprisingly, this was one of the only Rec League shows I can remember where Rob Rush didn't perform his crazy shirtless "go time" dance routine, though I do remember one or two Rhyme Force Most Illin' verses. I'm guessing the dance song had to be cut due to time running super short near the end of their set, otherwise a petition needs to be started to bring it back cus' that song tends to be an awesome spectacle to see live! Typical illness from these guys, still one of the funnest shows you're likely to see from any Bay Area hip hop act.

Fist Fam were the last act to perform, and they brought their rowdy Southern twist to the evening's Gurped out sounds. Unfortunately, there were a lot of major technical difficulties during their set, which detracted from a couple numbers and made for a slightly less crazy show than usual, but overall it was still a good performance. These guys are one of the largest groups out of the Gurp City collective, boasting at least 6 regular members to their name, so the stage tends to get crowded with MCs eager to rip the mic when they play. Their songs were mostly fun and dance-able with some awesome Southern style hooks, with stand-outs including "How Can I Miss You?" and the hometown friendly sing-along anthem "S.F. Bay." Sadly, their strongest song "Screamin' Out the Grave" ended up skipping and they had to pass it over... listen out for that one next time you see them live, cus' it tends to be nuts. Equipto of Bored Stiff and one other dope Bay area MC showed up as unexpected guests and stepped on stage to kick some freestyles once Fist Fam's set was a wrap. They played for about ten minutes before the venue shut the sound off at 2 in the morning.

All in all, this was a super fun show. The best I've seen from the Gurp City guys since their epic 111 Minna art gallery performance with Z-Man and DJ Quest, which still stands out in my memory as a really amazing time. Check out the video of one of the more recent Grand Invincible numbers that impressed me below:

Doubters Found Demolished

The Latest Greatest, 10/24/11

New album from one of the more prolific members of Project Blowed's Swim Team, Dumbfoundead, dropping on November 1rst of this year. Entitled "DFD," the album stands for pretty much whatever folks want it to according to Dumbfoundead, who encourages fans to drop their own interpretations of the three letters on his Facebook fan page in exchange for the chance to win a free CD package. Dumbfoundead's last one "Fun With Dumb" was a solid and entertaining listen, and the leaked singles off this new one are sounding more polished but a little more poppy as well. Curious to see if this guy will deliver on his potential with this album. Rappers strongly associated to the battle scene will often fall flat when it comes to making a full length, but if anyone can do it it's Dumbfoundead. Tracklisting and music video below (decent song, great video):

1. Town
2. Killers
3. Cool and Calm
4. Green
5. Run Home
6. Cell Phone (feat. Breezy Lovejoy & Wax)
7. Brb (feat. Andrew Garcia)
8. Bitch (feat. Breezy Lovejoy)
9. Son of a Gun (feat. Matik)
10. Studio Apartment
11. No More Sunny Days (feat. Breezy Lovejoy)
12. Tour Up (feat. Wax)
13. Are We There Yet

Freestyle Fellowship, Sub Ren and Opski Chan at 330 Ritch

View From the Front Row, 10/20/11

Last night, I rolled out to 330 Ritch in SF with one of my homies to catch the legendary Freestyle Fellowship live in concert. This was a rescheduled show from when Freestyle Fellowship cancelled their SF show back in August, and while I remember that one being promoted well, this time somebody dropped the ball. You'd figure that with tickets only 10 bucks, a major act like Freestyle Fellowship would pack a smaller-sized venue like 330 Ritch, but the crowd was maybe 1/4th the capacity of the club if we're being generous. I've seen some really fun shows at 330 Ritch, most notably Hopie's "Raw Gems" release party in September, but I also have to give the place a respectable thumbs down for this one due to the sound quality (or lack thereof). The number of mic malfunctions and lack of proper levels for vocals or beats in the monitors definitely detracted from the show overall.

The first act to perform was Opski Chan of San José's Isolated Wax crew, who was accompanied by Megabusive on stage as a backup. From what I can tell, Opski Chan is a good MC with some fine recordings under his belt like many of the folks on Isolated Wax, but I thought his set was a bit of a disappointment. He has some clever lyrics and good flows in his songs, but it almost felt like he was performing his tracks on autopilot at this show. He had a plenty of friends and supporters from San José in the crowd cheering him on after each song, and I was cheering for him as well, but he still seemed kind of bored on stage and uninterested in winning anyone over. Maybe Opski-Chan was disappointed by the small turn-out or fed up with the sound system and just decided it wasn't worth giving it 110%, or maybe he's not a frequent live performer and felt uncomfortable, but either way I sensed a lack of connection with the crowd. Can't blame this one on the sound system unfortunately, because when Megabusive grabbed the mic and dropped a guest verse on one song, he really killed it and showed off his charisma on stage. If I hadn't heard some of Opski Chan's recordings beforehand, I wouldn't have left the venue converted.

Another San José group, Sub Ren, came on to play next. I hadn't heard of them and neither had most of the audience, but they put on a pretty good set that had me smiling and grooving along to their tunes. They didn't get as many cheers from the crowd as Opski did, but they had a certain energy and momentum to their live show and knew how to carry themselves on stage. Opski Chan had the upper-hand in terms lyrics and concepts, but Sub Ren had some pretty dope mellow hip hop beats to rock over and their heart was clearly in their performance. The homie who I went to the show with was very bored with Sub Ren's set, so maybe you needed to be up in the front row looking to party for the songs to click. Another San José rapper, Rey Ressurection, joined Sub Ren on stage for one of their final numbers, but the two MCs of the group held it down just fine without him. Nice opening act.

The scattered crowd gathered to the stage as DJ Kilu got behind the boards to play some entry music for Freestyle Fellowship and get people hype. Aceyalone, Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E and Self Jupiter are all tremendous rap talents that have had a major influence on the directions that hip hop has taken over the years, so it's great to see that none of them have lost the touch live. Seeing these guys rock mics is bearing witness to some truly incredible feats of MCing, though the sound difficulties reached their peak during their set and occasionally marred some really great verses. I'd seen Aceyalone and Myka 9 kill it live many times before, but this was my first experience seeing P.E.A.C.E and Self Jupiter rock it, and they both lived up to expectations. P.E.A.C.E busted out an unbelievable acapella at one point that had his gruff voice shifting to all types of different musical pitches while Self Jupiter held it down and got into the crowd for his verse from "Pure Thought." I was worried that Freestyle Fellowship was going to play too many old songs and fumble them in the process, but the older tracks were all performed well and ended up being the highlights of the evening, with "Bullies of the Block" and "7th Seal" standing out in particular. It's just a shame that the sound quality was so poor, with mics losing audio and beats blasting too loud to properly hear all the verses. It got worse as the set went on, to the point where it was practically noise for the last few cuts. Open letter any venue planning on booking Myka 9 (my favorite Fellowship MC): his musical style of MCing is extremely complex and requires a very audible microphone and sound system. Out of the three times I've seen Microphone Mike live, only once has the sound of the venue properly done him justice, though he's still been impressive every time. Anyway, Freestyle Fellowship had all the chemistry and know-how you'd expect, and did their damn thing.

Overall, I felt like this was a decent show that could have been a great show. The fellaz in Freestyle Fellowship are undeniably impressive live, but the sound quality and overall atmosphere of the poorly promoted venue dragged the experience down a couple notches in my book. I'm very glad that I got to see these legends perform together, but doubt that this show will stay cemented in my memory a year from now.

Cloudy October "The Metal Jerk"

Expanding the Backpack, 10/18/11

Essential free music download alert. In case you missed Cloudy October's "The Aviator is Dead" EP, the Portland-based rapper's new freEP is even more determined to seize your attention and make your eyebrows twist themselves into odd angular shapes. Entitled "The Metal Jerk," the album runs a little under a half an hour in length, and packs more of a punch than some of these cookie cutter MCs can deliver in their entire rap careers. As far as flow and style goes, Cloudy October kind of reminds me of Nocando, with his aggressive enunciation of words and confident cadences standing out in particular. His rapping can come off as cocky and rude, particularly when he chooses to pull the cards of rappers and their guilt-ridden cohorts, but he also has a great sense of humor and is not afraid to tear himself apart over a track ("Name Yourself"). You can tell that Cloudy October is going out of his way to avoid conventional lyricism and be creative, and I appreciate that element of his music a lot. He also picks/produces some damn fine beats, which is pretty much what you'd expect considering that he's a part of the Fieldwerk Records roster. Fieldwerk and Cloudy October are offering "The Metal Jerk" as a free download on the Fieldwerk Records website. DL it via that link or stream tracks from it below, just make sure it reaches your eardrums in some way, shape or form.

1. Intro
2. Left Front Burner
3.The Ins and Outs of the Female Reproductive System
4. Play
5. 32,000lbs
6. Hairline Fracture
7. Live @ Pioneer Square
8. Wingman(Midlaw)
9. Name Yourself
10. To Each Her Own

Latest tracks by fieldwerk

Party Till the Commies Come Home

The Latest Greatest, 10/17/11

Very pleasantly surprised to hear that the Minnesota hip hop duo Big Quarters will be dropping their new album, "Party Like a Young Commie," on CD and digital formats November 29th. Medium Zach and Brandon Allday's last album, "From the Home of Brown Babies & White Mothers," was one of the sleeper indie hip hop hits of 2009 in my book, showcasing Big Quarters' own original blend of lo-fi choppy production and sincere MCing. That album stood out to me as being a very distinctive and solid body of work, so I can only hope that their new one continues the trend of quality that these two are known for. Between this album and Doomtree's "No Kings," Minnesota is going to be dominating the end of 2011 in quality rap releases. You can preorder "Party Like a Young Commie" through the Big Quarters website, signed and with a free instrumental download card. These guys tend to keep things strictly independent and put their albums out on their own with no label or distributor backing them, so all the more reason to support! Tracklisting and lead single/music video below:

1. And We Grew Up To Be Somebody
2. New Plateau
3. Perfect Match ft. Mankwe Ndosi
4. Pure
5. Humble Servants ft. Benzilla
6. C'mon
7. Follow Me Through
8. Hey
9. Tumbler
10. Low Highs
11. Savings Bonds
12. When The Head Connects With The Body
13. Unreal ft. Mankwe Ndosi
14. Never Leave A Crumb

Long Live the Lack of Kings

The Latest Greatest, 10/15/11

The new Doomtree crew album "No Kings" is gonna be dropping November 22nd on Doomtree Records. The cover artwork (pictured above) is probably my least favorite DTR design to date, but I know that they're aiming to emblazon the symbol into people's minds so it's all good. The lead single off the album, "The Great Experiment," is not entirely what you'd expect from this gang of talented rap types but it's a pretty awesome song never the less. I hear that the production on this album was handled differently than the production on past Doomtree albums, with Lazerbeak, P.O.S and Cecil Otter handling all of the beats as a trio (not sure if Paper Tiger has any contributions here?). Not quite as excited for this one as I was for their self-titled joint when that was first announced, but I'm sure that come late November I'll be gushing all over this and flashing wings and teeth hand-signs all over the damn place. 'Till then, tracklisting and streamable single below:

1. No Way
2. Bolt Cutter
3. Bangarang
4. Beacon
5. Punch-Out
6. Little Mercy
7. The Grand Experiment
8. String Theory
9. Team the Best Team
10. Gimme the Go
11. Own Yours
12. Fresh New Trash

Doomtree "The Grand Experiment" by doomtree. Uploaded with Scup

Astronautalis with Rustangs and Crescent Banks at Thee Parkside, SF

View From the Front Row, 10/12/11

A few nights ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Astronautalis live at Thee Parkside with local SF rock bands Rustangs and Crescent Banks as the opening acts. The San Francisco date of Astronautalis' tour was nearly passed up due to no venue being down to book him, but a friend of mine hooked things up with Thee Parkside despite the short notice and I promptly promoted the crap out of it. I was worried that the turnout would be minimal due to the lack of time to properly get the word out about the event, but good news travels fast and there were a lot of excited Astronautalis fans up in Thee Parkside come showtime. A lot of different Bay area homies of mine rolled out to this one too, which made things extra fun.

Things started on a bit of an awkward note with the opening acts. Both Crescent Banks and Rustangs did their things, but it was hard to get anyone in the crowd to care about them as most folks in attendance were busy buzzing about Astronautalis to one another. I'd seen Crescent Banks play before opening for David Ramos and Tommy V. in Half Moon Bay, and they have a cool laid back style of indie rock that incorporates lots of horns and keyboards. They did a bunch of nice numbers, but the crowd reception wasn't nearly as good as the one at Old Princeton Landing, though I still showed'em some support from the front. Rustangs were considerably noisier and grimier than Crescent Banks, and seemed like a band that'd feel more comfortable opening for one of my friends' extra loud punk bands than any crazed indie rap type. They had a couple numbers that made me smile from the front as well, though without my ear plugs I doubt I'd have been able to hear by the end of their set!

Once the openers were done, the room started filling up with tons of eager people who had been hanging around the outskirts of the venue or near the back of the bar. I had heard many tales of Astronautalis' live show, but this was my first time witnessing it with my own eyes, and I must say that it lived up to all expectations. For starters, Astronautalis (or Andy, as he introduced himself) was quite the charismatic figure on stage. Even when he wasn't singing or rapping with his trademark intensity, there was a certain flair to his demeanor and the way that he addressed the crowd that was both friendly and sincere. Astronautalis had a band backing him up that consisted of a guitarist, a drummer, and a dude playing the sample/drum pads that happened to be Nobs of Brooklyn's praised hip hop duo Dez & Nobs. The band offered some awesome live spins on Astronautalis' songs that added new elements to the tracks while staying fairly close to the originals, and Astronautalis tackled each song with the ferocity or gentleness they deserved. He covered many songs from his new album "This is Our Science," including "The River, The Woods," "This is Our Science", "Measure the Globe" and "Midday Moon." Astronautalis also occasionally tossed improvised verses into the ends of his songs while the band played on, including a verse about Thee Parkside and attacking people's cellphones in the front row, which he referenced after an extra rowdy rendition of "Thomas Jefferson" caused a gal to drop her iPhone (it wasn't damaged). That freestyling was already pretty impressive, but heads were reeling in awe and disbelief when Astronautalis went into the freestyle segment of his set, where he took five extremely strange and obscure topics from the crowd and formed a song about them. This evening's topics included "Al Davis reincarnated as an iPhone 5," "Supernovas," "Ulysses by James Joyce" (my topic), "Talking Heads" and "Being a black woman living in San Francisco listening to house music" amongst others. What was amazing about this part of Astronautalis' performance is that he not only rapped about all of the topics with great flows on beat, but also that he formed entire verses with details about each topic in his head rather than just incorporating the words as most rappers do in these sorts of freestyle showcases. It must take a seriously wild imagination for a white guy from Florida to come up with that many lines about being a black woman living in San Francisco listening to house music on the spot. Near the end of his set, Astronautalis played two of my favorite songs from his new album, "Holy Water" and "Secrets on Our Lips," and while they were great the pinnacles of his set were elsewhere. "Dmitri Mendeleev" was one of the major highlights in the way that it skyrocketed with energy, with the beat building massively and the hook and verses getting the crowd extremely lively and enthusiastic. Another such highlight was one of Astronautalis' older numbers, "Trouble Hunters," which in my opinion was the greatest moment of the set. The anthemic quality of the song and hook was so strong that Astronautalis hopped off stage and cut the track for a moment, moving to the center of the crowd and laying down rules for the last minute of the song so that none of the short timid girls in his fanbase would get hurt. When the track came back on, he had the entire Parkside jumping up and down in mass and screaming along to the words. So memorable that the moment still echoes through my spirit, even after having seen a couple shows since then. Once Astronautalis' set was done, he was drenched in sweat with a satisfied look in his eyes, mirrored only by the jubilant look of the crowd.

Fantastic show, don't pass on the chance to see this guy live. A little footage of "Secrets on Our Lips" below though I was busy dancing for the most part. I saw an awful lot of people in the crowd filming this entire show on their cameras and phones... if you'd like to share some of it, I'd love to see it! Just put links in the comments section below.