When it comes to dropping lyrics in songs that could easily be comedic punchlines, perhaps nobody is better at it right now than Danny Brown and the duders in Das Racist. Both entities love to make jaws drop and don’t mind making panties drop either. Both will be at Neumos tonight making folks laugh, pay attention, and of course dance.
If you’re not hip to Danny yet, frankly you’re just slow. He’s performing in Seattle for the first time tonight and that’s reason enough to come and support the show. Peruse this cover story. Hell yes I wrote it. You can also check out these videos below. Dude is nasty when it comes to the craft of rapping if you like hip-hop for what it, was, and will be in the future, come check out Danny do his thing.


Read the rest of this entry »

feeling bummed about the election results from last night? need some good news? well, did you know that stones throw-ers aloe blacc and mayer hawthorne are playing the emerald city this weekend? say what you will about our fucked political-corporate-media clusterfuck landscape, but good music will cure most any blues. aloe blacc will be at fremont’s nectar lounge this friday (11/5) with maya jupiter and dj 100proof, and tickets can be had here for only $10. soul singer extraordinaire mayer hawthorne (and backing band the county) will be at neumo’s on sunday (11/7). friends of LxNxM gordon voidwell are opening things up. (UPDATE: just saw that mayer hawthorne will also be dj-ing at hg lodge on saturday (11/6) for the members only almost famous night. mark your calendars accordingly.) you can get tickets for this show–which only cost $15–here, or go to moe bar and get them in person. enjoy some tracks from these folks above and below.
Mayer Hawthorne – No Strings (Classixx Original) by stonesthrow

And listen to some Foscil. If you have almost forty minutes of spare time and/or are looking for some background music to your day, why not watch/listen/absorb through osmosis this full live set by Seattle genre-busters Foscil. Even after seeing multiple Foscil performances, I still can’t get enough of these fellas. Their music makes me do the scrunchy faced Master P uhhhhh face. In a good way. Enjoy.

Aight. It’s official. Official official like. Shabazz Palaces just tore down the house over at Neumos, and if you weren’t there, I’m sorry for your loss. There’s about to be hella video, etc coming out, but in the meantime, check the vibe with these pictures, courtesy of Mr. Tang himself.

Rappers: learn a new way. The shit is here.

We would be remiss not to tell you about this show. Shabazz Palaces, the product of once and future legendary Seattle mc Ishmael Butler, aka Butterfly of Digable Planets fame, is performing live for the very first time on home turf.

Now, we’re not promoting this show officially. And we have no financial gain to be made by you showing up this Friday. But, it’s safe to say that this show will go down in history. Shabazz Palaces has been pretty much universally recognized as the best Northwest release of 2009 (sorry indie rock kids). When Larry Mizell Jr, Andrew Matson, Josh Powell and our own Wordlush all agree, you know you’ve done something special.

But don’t take my damn word for it. You should take a listen. Since we’re not in the habit of blowing up local artists’ music free to the world (support your peoples), there are some more videos below the jump (notably their live KEXP performance a few months back), but to whet your appetite, here’s the official video for Belhaven Meridian, directed by Kahlil Joseph (Update: and not Pun(c)tuation Gallery impresario Maikoiyo Alley-Barnes).

Watch it. Then come to Neumos on Friday.

Read the rest of this entry »