By David Ma
A big fan and good friend once told me: “People don’t even see The Mumlers’ use of Soul in their music—the horn arrangements, tempos, and style are like old Soul music”. And that’s when I realized that the young band’s talents are more than manifold. So much so, that their music is often described in broad, overarching terms that limit the sound they actually achieve. (more…)
By: David Ma
Photos by: Anabella Pinon
The wonderful Sharon Jones stopped by a sold-out Bimbo’s last week, dancing, joking, singing, and simply working her ass off during an active, two-hour set. The Dap Kings showed why they were ask to back Amy Winehouse on her Back To Black album, switching rhythms and sounding more magnificent live than they normally do on record. Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings more than deserved everyone’s price of admission that night. They were so, sooooo good.
I plan on talking to Ms. Jones about this sold out tour (stay tuned!), her current career, and all the recent, well-deserved attention they’ve been receiving. But for now, here are some pictures from that mighty evening.
Show Review + Brother Ali Talks on Recent Tour With Rap Legends
By David Ma
Photos By Misa Nguyen
Rakim, Ghostface, and Brother Ali played two nights (November 1st @ The Catalyst & the 2nd @ The Mezzanine) here in the Bay last week. In addition, all three acts were backed by a very solid ten-piece band, The Rhythm Roots All-Stars.
Brother Ali, usually the headliner, was the opener this time around. Ghostface, whose career is shaping up to be quite epic, opened for Rakim; who is possibly the most revered rapper ever. Thankfully, their stop at The Catalyst was an impressive one.
Ghostface did verses from 36 Chambers, and selected solo verses, including a cover of Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya”. The exuberant performance was preceded with a speech about ODB, adding weight and character to the performance. He also took time to acknowledge Rakim’s influence on his own career before finishing, stating that “he wouldn’t even be here without Rakim’s influence”.
Rakim was Rakim. Being the most quoted rapper alive means that your words are immediately familiar, even amongst a crowd that’s too young to tell. From “Paid In Full” to “Mahogany”, Rakim was all quotables. He performed without the clamor of an entourage, delivering lines that were written two decades ago without a shaky syllable. Rakim was, still is, and will be, an emcee with sharp lines that don’t seem to lose relevance with time.
As the opener, a fan, and successful rapper, Brother Ali spoke to Mesh the day of the show. After the jump are his thoughts on a tour that’s merging different eras of hip-hop with class and vigor.
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San Jose’s premiere, and only, record swap event coincides with this year’s San Jose Jazz Festival. It is also the Wax Poetics release party for issue #24 & the listening party for “East of Underground”, a reissue of lost Vietnam era-funk from Wax Poetics’ record label.
It’s an event seldom seen in San Jose & free magazines, stickers, trading cards, posters and CDs will be handed out (while quantities last).
The event is completely free. Support.
Sage Francis talks about life, his contemporaries, new album and The Bay
By David Ma
Next week, May 8th, is the release of Sage Francis’ new album, Human The Death Dance. Whether you dig his music or not, think he’s amazing or too preachy, it can be argued that the Bay Area houses his most staunch supporters. With a history that partially burgeoned from Bay Area imprint Anticon, the Rhode Island rapper has independently crafted a career for himself, signing with Epitaph and subsequently touring the world. His new album will be his second with Epitaph [part 2 of a 3 record deal] and also features charming Bay Area notable, Jolie Holland.
Sage’s tour will bring him to San Francisco for two nights at The Fillmore on June 19th and the 20th. The new project is much like his last efforts: Personal raps over eclectic beats. Although it should be noted that some of the production from composer Mark Isham are atypically sequenced, lacking drums and the normal rap-song formula. Lyrically, there’s a lessened sense of political clamor as well. The songs are aggressive, others are fun and some are slow. But the culmination of ideas, production and know-how reflected within the album will give die-hard fans what they’d expect from a Sage Francis project.
With a huge tour in place and a new album to promote, I spoke with Mr. Francis about his roots, record and rap career. It’s been almost a decade since he first awed a small afternoon crowd at San Jose’s ill-fated Cactus Club. And though off-putting at times, he’s surely intelligent, careful about his career, moves a crowd, and refreshingly, is real personable. Here’s our conversation:
A lot of people here are really excited to hear the new album. How would you describe Human The Death Dance to someone who’s never heard your music before?
Tough to describe, but I guess the best description would be to call it an album of reflection. Making the most sense of life that I can. It could be viewed as a break up album, or a celebration of someone who has explored his freedom and discovery while acknowledging the loss that comes along with that.
Which album, looking back at your discography, would you want to be solely remembered for?
For the sake of promotion I should say Human The Death Dance. If I really had to make the choice, I guess Personal Journals. Because that’s an album where I broke new ground and set the foundation for everything I have built since then. That’s not entirely accurate…but it sounds nice though, doesn’t it?
Human The Death Dance, alongside Brother Ali’s Undisputed Truth and EL-P’s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead are all serious albums which are bringing attention back to indie-hip-hop as of late. Have you heard their albums? Can you talk about Ali and EL-P’s recent work?
I have not heard Ali’s album, but I’ve performed with him a few times recently. He offers a time warp that brings you back to a time when hip-hop offered intelligence and rebellion while presenting itself with an undeniable confidence and bravado. El-P gave me a copy of his album at the Paid Dues Festival and I’ve been playing it a lot. To me, El-P is the natural progression and growth of NYC hip-hop. While almost everyone else stood at a standstill, he moved on without losing the signature nature of what NYC hip-hop used to be about. It’s a barrage of sound and words and content. It’s like an evolution of the Bomb Squad sound, which I am a huge fan of. But, man…after hearing this album a few times through I’m starting to get anxiety. Kinda like how skyscapers give me anxiety when I look at them for too long. While I believe both of us know that hip-hop can be done in a mature fashion, I’ve moved more into a stripped down version of hip-hop where the lyrics and vocals take more of a front seat. That’s just where I’m at right now. A Healthy Distrust was abbrassive in sound and vocal execution, but I needed to move away from that for this album and do something more layed back. All of us are doing our own thing and it’s adding to the variety and critical mass that indie-hiphop is definitely benefiting from. If we all went about music in the same way we’d be doing a disservice to our character. And we’re all characters with our own traits, our own life and our own approach. It’s good that we can all come together and perform at the same events and share an audience who appreciates the different styles that we bring to the plate.
Incredible Rarity: EL-P’s Bay Area Connection
By David Ma
I’ve respected EL-P ever since I heard Funcrusher Plus years ago. It blew me away then as much as his current work blows me away now. Last week, EL-P was at the Mezzanine showcasing his new album I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, which lyrically explores the atmosphere of a post-9/11 New York. Like his last project, Fantastic Damage, his latest work bleeds originality. It combines thrashy production with intelligent writing, and though cluttered at times, leaves a one-of-a-kind impression. It’s a modern rarity to find an artist who’s popular without pandering to trends. But this is EL-P we’re talking about. Since his days with Company Flow, he’s been spearheading creative music without gimmicks or apologies. His work compliments hip-hop without sounding forced, and that alone, should be applauded.
Most people might not know this, but EL-P’s Bay Area history is dense as his droning production is. I was able to talk with him as he arrived in San Francisco for the California leg of his tour. EL-P discusses his early days in The Bay with Hieroglyphics and Living Legends, the differences he notices between San Francisco and New York, and why he thinks us Bay Area folks support his music so much.
Jeremy Fish is a popular Bay Area artist who’s done artwork for Aesop Rock. Are you familiar with his work?
Of course, Jeremy’s my boy. I learned about Fish from Aesop since those dudes are like best friends. I thought their collaboration was incredible and they’ll be collaborating a lot in the future. Fish did all the artwork and packaging for Aesop’s new record. He’s just an amazing artist, a down to earth guy and a huge hip-hop fan. That’s how we all operate.
What do you mean by “that’s how we all operate”?
I mean, we’re just fans of art in general. So we’re down with cats who are into art. An artist is an artist, and your work carries your experiences. Jeremy’s cool man. Every time I’m in the Bay, I hang with him and the cats from Upper Playground. I’ve gotten a few of my tattoos here in San Francisco too.
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| March 3, 2007 | ||
| 9:00 pm |
Catch Honeycut live at Mezzanine as part of Noise Pop with Austin’s Ghostland Observatory (headliners), The Gray Kid & Landshark plus DJ Vin Sol tomorrow, Saturday, March 3rd. $15
Quannum Quality: A Talk With Honeycut
By David Ma
Quannum has been releasing slick music since the early ‘90s when jointly known as Solesides. The original stable, which consisted of Blackalicious, DJ Shadow, Latryx and DJ Zen [Jeff Chang], evolved into a record label around 1996. In addition to releasing their own projects, the collective currently seeks and signs talent they deem worthy. Knowing that intelligent music champions itself, Quannum’s latest signee, Honeycut, is emerging as another noteworthy member of the Quannum crew.
Meshing ‘80s pop with Motown, hip-hop and soul, the trio of Bart Davenport, RV Salters and Tony Sevener has been getting noticed for their latest release, The Day I Turned To Glass. Their eclectic sound recently received SF Weekly’s award for “Best Soul/Funk Record”, and they were also featured on KCRW’s CMJ Showcase in New York.
As their music gains momentum, we linked up with Honeycut and shot the breeze about connecting with Quannum, David Bowie’s influence on their music, and performing in the Bay Area. Here’s what the new guard of Quannum artists had to say:
Let’s start off by introducing yourselves.
RV: We’re Honeycut, and future Soul is our quest! Honeycut is Bart on vocals, Tony on the MPC and myself on keyboards/sampler.
Why the name Honeycut?
RV: We chose this name because our music plays on contrasts. We’re sweet as honey and sharp as a knife.
Your style is obviously eclectic. Who are some of your main influences?
Bart: The Four Tops, Paul McCartney, Curtis Mayfield, Rolling Stones, Shuggie Otis and Gil Scott Heron to name a few.
Tony: For me, I’d say Madlib, Prince Paul, El-P, Shadow, Prince and Zigaboo Modeliste.
How’d you guys link up with Quannum?
RV: I hooked up with Chief Xcel [of Blackalicious and co-founder of Quannum Projects] about 4 years ago through a common friend, Vincent Segal, who had played cello on Blazing Arrow. We clicked and from then on I ended up playing on a lot of Xcel’s productions, including Blackalicious’s ‘The Craft.’ I then started touring with them, and one thing leading to another, I played a few Honeycut songs, and he dug it and championed it to Quannum. We’re honored to be releasing our debut on such a prestigious underground label.
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South Bay Record Collector Drops Gems
By: David Ma
Commercially released or homemade, mixtapes are seldom exceptional. They usually inundate you with mediocrity or just go unnoticed. But the clamor is fleeting when something like Audio emerges.
Adrian Mendoza [who goes by Age] is a record collector from the South Bay whose latest mixtape, Audio, elbows it’s way above recent releases. But this shouldn’t imply that the project is conceptually new. “As far as it being different from other mixtapes, it really isn’t,” Admits Age. “If anything, it’s a personal bond to share music with your friends and show them what you are into. I just wanted to hear a lot of these songs and it just happened to all fit together.” (more…)
A Side Conversation with RJD2
By David Ma
When interviewing artists, I make an enormous effort not to stray away from my preset interview questions. This is to simply keep the interview concise for the both of us. But it happens every time. For the most part I don’t mind, yet I don’t want our allotted time to be wasted on chitchat when I could be focusing on topics related to my article’s angle.
This happened the other day when I talked to RJD2 for an article I’m working on. Always the humblest of individuals [I interviewed him when Deadringer was released], the interview somehow went off on a tangent when he asked me where I was from. I replied “The Bay Area”, and this is where the side conversation takes place. And unlike most artists whose diatribes are unfunny, uninteresting and unusable, RJ’s reflections about living in San Francisco before becoming a sought after super-producer are actually interesting. At least I think so. And hopefully some fans of RJ from the area will think so too.
Anticon’s WHY? chats with MESH
By David Ma
A couple months back, I had the brilliant idea to interview the entire Anticon stable. An editor from an outlet I write for gave me the go-ahead, as did the folks at Anticon. I had spoken and written about them individually before, but I rarely saw an interview with Anticon as a whole. So I thought it’d be worthwhile to discuss how their music, record label and overall outlook has changed since their debut, Music for the Advancement of Hip-Hop. Though terribly titled, the album had its merits, showcasing young talent that has remained active to this day. But the entire article I envisioned never materialized due to bad timing on my part. Of all the core members who agreed to be interviewed, only one got back to me—Yoni Wolf, known to his fans as WHY?
In this brief chat, Wolf discusses some of his favorite current CDs, his future plans, favorite spots from touring, and other questions he sufficiently answered without his label-mates. And you’ll see, his quirky responses are probably a far better read than my initial idea of interviewing the entire crew. Thanks Yoni.
