Category: unsorted

Meet Brothers Backword

The Bomarr Blog has the exclusive on the musical debut of a heretofore shrouded project featuring Passage of Anticon and Restiform Bodies. The Stupid Intelligent Mixtape, by Brothers Backword, is free for download and features 20+ minutes of danceable rap spit and sung by Passage and vocalist Mike Busse. It’s highly stylish stuff — smart and fun — and it incorporates a dozen or so fantastic song samples and partial covers. Find the Fugazi snippet.

Also Restiform-relevant: there’s been a spate of music-related plagiarism cases in the news lately, and I’d venture to say the RBs could have a case. Witness, first, the title and album art of their most recent album, TV Loves You Back:

And now, the just-announced, quite similar title and rather busted cover art of the upcoming DVD from, ahem, Starbucks artist Sia:

You can also read about Restiform Bodies in this mini feature I wrote from BPM last year. Sadly, that magazine just retired its printing press.

Q&A: Ain’t it “Funkee,” now?

Actually, no. Since Del Tha Funkee Homosapien’s return last year, his output has been credited to one “Del The Funky Homosapien.” In this brand new A.V. Club interview posted in Chicago, yours truly gets to the bottom of this troubling mystery. Naturally, we discuss a few other things as well. Far more impressive is this, the still-fresh video for Del’s “Get It Right Now,” which happens to be directed by my dear brah-league, Grant James:

When you’re strange…

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Well, you get things written about you. Last week, LA Weekly released its annual “People” issue (a tome, really) rounding up the sundry stories of all kinds of odd ducks, innovators, heroes and culture-makers. I wrote about a fabulous man who plans to change this city through dance and probably will, a trio of life-long vagabonds who are bringing Balkan busking to L.A., and a pair of women who started a “time bank” in Echo Park.

Oh, and said vagabonds are also part of Killsonic, the 24-piece mobile ensemble that stormed the Red Line in January.

Zestfully mean

The A.V. Club recently released its “Spring Music” issue highlighting some fresh faces for the freshest of seasons. I spoke to Dan Deacon, Adam “doseone” Drucker (Themselves) and Bill Callahan, though not a single one of them seemed too stoked for the season. In fact, they were respectively cranky, aggressive and ponderous — but I’ll be damned if they didn’t give great interview.

Thanks, Coachella

I’m sure I’m not alone in admitting that I’m still recovering from three days spent soaking up desert sun and distortion. These things take time, and weaning, which is why I’d like to belatedly introduce my baby, Coachella Digital, Issue 1.

Still those clucking tongues: this is a real (digital) magazine. Goldenvoice knows better than to launch a publication that feels like a playbill, and they gave us more editorial freedom than I’ve experienced at some indie outfits.

In short, it’s an online/offline digital publication whose primary goal is to cover the culture of the modern music festival. It’s highly interactive, plenty literate, and features as much fresh talent as it does stories of those who operate behind the scenes.

It’s free for download here. Oh, and I’m the managing editor, which means I touch all the text.

Also, I blogged about the fest for LA Weekly here: