Next month, Atmosphere will launch its first extensive national tour for its hit album, If Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold. Slug & Ant (that is, if Ant goes out on the road this time) has been touring with a backing band lately, adding a little spice to their familiar formula of freestyles, shout-outs to women, and a rousing slam dance to Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name." Newbies who discovered the duo through MTV should get to the venue early for opening sets from Blueprint and Abstract Rude.
As usual, Atmosphere's Paint the Nation tour will roll through mid-size cities such as Omaha and Boise, and make pit stops at a few major festivals like San Diego's Street Scene. Incredibly, New York isn't on the itinerary; give the dudes kudos for that. (August 20 update: The Atmosphere tour has ballooned to a 50-city endurance test. And yes, New York is part of the festivities.)
What do you do when you're one of the biggest independent hip-hop stars of the past decade and want to capitalize on your big-man status with a green-minting run, but don't have a new CD to promote?
Well, you go on tour anyway.
So Aesop Rock will hit the road, confident that he'll sell out nightclubs and small theaters even though his last album, the critically-acclaimed None Shall Pass, dropped last August. Joining him will be his trusty DJ, Big Wiz (who thankfully recovered from that auto accident he suffered in 2006) and rapper Rob Sonic.
On Thursday, June 19, digital prankster/mixmaster Girl Talk posted his new album Feed the Animals over the Internet.
Feed the Animals is available as a "pay what you want" download. You can pay nothing and download the album as 320 kbps MP3s; pay $5 and download the album as FLAC files and a long continuous mix; or pay $10 or more for the above packages as well as the CD, which is set for release via Illegal Art in September.
As with Night Ripper, his 2006 breakthrough, Feed the Animals incorporates over 300 songs into a 50 minute mix broken into 13 "songs." Popular rap hits like Rich Boy's "Throw Some Ds" and the Cool Kids' "Gold & a Pager" play a big part as do pop, dance and rock classics like Janet Jackson's "Nasty," Big Country's "In a Big Country" and Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You." "This project has always been about embracing pop," he told Billboard earlier this month. "There are parts with edits more detailed than anything on 'Night
Ripper,' but overall, I spent time focusing on a particular source song
for longer periods of time, rather than jumping from song source to
song source as quickly as possible."
Girl Talk isn't officially on tour at the moment, but he generally plays a lot of shows. This summer won't be an exception, as he's scheduled to hit several major festivals. His itinerary, as well the Feed the Animals track listing, is located below.
Last year, I criticized Warped Tour for its tendency to add a token hip-hop act or two to a slew of crappy punk bands. But this year appears to be different. While Warped Tour's tone remains obscenely corporate, with the usual mall punk stars (Cobra Starship, Angels and Airwaves), legendary old-schoolers (GBH) and pop-punk wannabes, more than a few weirdly unusual (if not necessarily good) acts have been thrown in the mix, including Jeffree Star and Does It Offend You, Yeah? That adventurous spirit extends to the hip-hop acts as well.
Some of the better known artists include ever-popular cult rapper/comedian. MC Chris. Look out for Othello and Braille, two-thirds of Lightheaded; Braille just released an underrated album, The IV Edition, in April. Shwayze is more on the pop-rap end, with a skater-pop aesthetic similar to Travis McCoy. Shwayze just got a write-up on MTV due to his popular single, "Buzzin'," and his self-titled debut comes out on August 19. Junk Science, (pictured above) the anchor band behind Definitive Jux-affiliated label Embedded Records, picked up Hangar 18's slot. (Hangar 18 dropped off the tour for unknown reasons.) And though you can argue that they aren't really hip-hop, I'll throw Gym Class Heroes in this category, too.
Lesser-known groups appearing on Warped include Megaphone, a new duo consisting of Moe Pope and Headnodic (from Crown City Rockers and the Mighty Underdogs); Detroit rapper Dante, who releases his album Roaming Empire on July 15; and Buffalo, New York hot prospect Edreys.
MC Chris, Gym Class Heroes, Shwayze, Othello and Dante will hold down the entire Warped Tour. Braille, Junk Science, Megaphone and Edreys will appear in select cities. Check the itinerary below.
Starting next week, self-styled revolutionary Immortal Technique will spend the rest of the summer touring across the country. He'll be promoting his first album in four years, The 3rd World, which is set to drop on June 24 via Koch Entertainment. And, as was the case last year, he'll spend part of that time on the Rock the Bells festival tour.
In related news, Immortal Technique has organized an essay writing contest. The competition is open to high school students in grades 9-12; high school seniors who graduated in June are eligible, too.
"Too often students are bogged down with necessary after school jobs and
do not have the free time needed to cultivate their writing and
analytical thinking skills," writes Immortal Technique, who is something of an essayist himself, in a statement on his MySpace page. "Recognizing that these skills are crucial,
Immortal Technique would like to award the writers of the top three
essays with money meant to allow them more free time to reflect on the
state of the world and to develop their writing skills. The essay
contest is meant to demonstrate to the youth that their writing and
critical thinking skills can generate an income for them and their
families."
You can learn more about the contest on Immortal Technique's website. The contest ends July 8.
For those of us who graduated from high school, like, a long time, here's the track listing for the decidedly R-rated The 3rd World and the itinerary for Immortal Technique's summer program.
