Incoming: Wu-Tang Clan, Jan. 4

Wu-Tang Clan, due to release 8 Diagrams on Dec. 11, has announced a Tempe date for Jan. 4 at Marquee Theatre (buy tickets).

I’m putting the over-under at 5 on actual members showing up. For $45, they better all show up.

In the meantime, check out this Wu-Tang widget (via Listening Post) with 29 unreleased and exclusive tracks.

EDIT: The Wu-Tang widget plays automatically when page loads, which I find really annoying. Unless someone smarter than I can manipulate the embed code so it won’t do that, you can get the widget here.

Maroon and Gold

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Happy Thanksgiving.

If you’re a football fan, today is a great day. If you’re an Arizona State football fan, today is even better than great. My Sun Devils, ranked sixth in the BCS standings, go up against Southern California on ESPN tonight, a break from the usual tradition of playing Arizona the day after Thanksgiving.

A berth in the Rose Bowl is at stake, and ASU has the tiniest chance still of the BCS title game.

In the spirit of football, here’s the ASU fight song as performed by the Sun Devil marching band. I ripped this from a record I bought at a thrift store some time ago: Sun Devil Marching Band presents Fight Songs of the West.

Go Devils.

  • Sun Devil marching band | Maroon and Gold

Travis: Selfish Jean video

I’ve been pretty upfront about my fondness for Travis (click, click, click, click). So I am super excited to be seeing them – for the first time – on Sunday at Marquee Theatre in Tempe.

I’ve posted two of the band’s videos from the new album The Boy With No Name and somehow forgot this one for Selfish Jean, whose rhythm lines bear an uncanny resemblance to Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life. I have no idea if the song has anything to do with this, but I like the updated model of Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues video concept.

Meanest Man Contest: Partially Smart

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If you missed the last time I posted on Meanest Man Contest, well, then, I’ll forgive you. Just this once.

But, seriously, MMC is part of the lineup over at the newly created Rcrd Lbl, a company formed by Downtown Records and Peter Rojas, founder of Gizmodo and Engadget. (I won’t get into all the details; you can read a story in Wall Street Journal here.) In short, Rcrd Lbl is offering free downloads and costs are covered by sponsors/advertisers. You can read what blogger types are saying about it here.

I’m not really too concerned with the politics of it. For now, I’m happy Meanest Man Contest has a new track available for download called Partially Smart. According to Sneak Move, MMC will release one song per month for four months through Rcrd Lbl.

That’s cool by me. Partially Smart follows what I loved about MMC’s Throwing Away Broken Electronics – where avant-garde studio experimenting meets bottom-line hip-hop beats.

Rcrd Lbl asks not to rehost downloads, and I couldn’t quite figure out how to embed the damn widget. So follow the link below to download Partially Smart. It’s worth it.

ALSO: MMC and Gold Robot Records are having a remix contest for MMC’s They Do. Get the details and a capella version of the track at Gold Robot.

edIT: Artsy remix (feat. The Grouch)

The Grouch.

Thanks to Noz at Cocaine Blunts for posting this remix of Artsy, one of my favorite tracks by any Living Legends member.

Artsy is a dis track of a different sort. Smackin’ MCs must be old. The Grouch calls out the “pseudo-elitist, old-school sap.” Or, as Noz says: “Grouch disses his fanbase. There’s something sort of beautiful about the layers of sarcasm and self loathing. It’s a lot like the blogosphere.”

“You ain’t artsier than me…
cuz you only read books, don’t watch TV.

You ain’t artsier than me…
cuz you shop at Whole Foods in open-toed shoes

You ain’t artsier than me…
cuz you speak real soft and drink chai tea”

LA producer edIT gives Artsy the knob-tweaking treatment for his latest, Certified Air Raid Material. I’ll still take the original, but I’m happy if this song gets a more exposure because of this mix.

  • The Grouch | Artsy
  • edIT | Artsy remix (feat. The Grouch)

(Also pick up the title track of edIT’s album at the KEXP blog.)

Speaking of the Living Legends, Murs has a new single out (Better Than the Best) in advance of his Warner Bros. debut Murs for President. WB sent out streams to post. I asked for an mp3. Their compromise?: They could give me a 30-second clip with a link to buy the single.

Just go stream it at Murs’ MySpace or XXLmag.com. The track was produced by Nottz, who also produced Barry Bonds off Kanye’s Graduation. I think I’m the only person who likes that song.

Anyway, you can still get Murs’ Dreadlocks (previous post) at his management company’s Web site, too. Right damn here.

Atban Klann: Grass Roots (repost, Part II)

Here is the rest of the Grass Roots record by Atban Klann (now better known as Black Eyed Peas). You can grab the first eight tracks here. No telling how long I’ll keep these up; it’s a drag on the ol’ server space. And server space doesn’t grow on trees, ya know.

This batch has a few of my favorites (No Sequel, Focus On You and Puddles of H2O) and a couple of snippets that I’ve decided to title “interlude.”

Again, these are posted in order of how I have them on my copy. So these would be tracks 9-19. The first post is 1-8.

Hope you enjoy.

  • Atban Klann | No Sequel
  • Atban Klann | Rain On Me
  • Atban Klann | Dedicated
  • Atban Klann | interlude
  • Atban Klann | Focus On You
  • Atban Klann | Puddles of H2O
  • Atban Klann | interlude
  • Atban Klann | Duet
  • Atban Klann | Strolling
  • Atban Klann | Yougohdah
  • Atban Klann | La Borio Woman Beater

Atban Klann: Grass Roots (repost, Part I)

In my two-plus years of writing this blog, I don’t think I’ve ever made a wholesale rerun of a block of tracks from a previous post. And I usually keep mp3s up for about a month (or more if I’m lazy). That means I get some requests to repost tracks. More than any post(s) I’ve done, my digital conversion of a dubbed cassette of Atban Klann’s shelved Grass Roots album has, no doubt, been requested for repost the most. (I split it into four parts: Here, here, here and here.)

Quick summary: Atban Klann was Black Eyed Peas before they were Black Eyed Peas. Here’s what I wrote in that first post back in September 2005:

“Formed in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Atban (A Tribe Beyond A Nation) brought current BEPs Apl.de.ap and Will.I.Am together to produce some cuts that might surprise you. It might surprise you also to know that Atban Klann was signed to Ruthless Records, run by none other than Eazy-E. Unfortunately, the album, Grass Roots, was shelved and never found its way to the public. Story has it that Ruthless was unsure how to market a group whose positive vibes ran contrary to Ruthless’ gangsta image.”

One of my more prized (if not slightly warped) pieces of my vinyl collection is a 12-inch single for Puddles of H2O (b/w Let Me Get Down), which, I’m presuming, would have been the lead single.

Anyway, as I also said in that original post, my copy of the album (on a Maxell UR cassette) is probably a copy of a copy. Still, you get the idea. One note: The order I’m posting the tracks is the order I have them on my copy, so I’m not sure if that would have been the official sequence on the final product.

  • Atban Klann | Open Your Mind
  • Atban Klann | Going for a Ride
  • Atban Klann | Adidas
  • Atban Klann | Lord of the Flies
  • Atban Klann | Quid Pro Quo
  • Atban Klann | Jugglin’ My Nuts (interlude … not sure if that’s the title.)
  • Atban Klann | Mountain Top
  • Atban Klann | World’s Gone Mad

Part II coming in the next day or so.

The Blood Arm: Going to Arizona

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Well, this is fitting. The Blood Arm, from Los Angeles (aren’t they all?), is opening the Art Brut/Hold Steady soiree at Marquee Theatre in Tempe tonight (info at Stateside Presents), which we will be attending.

So you could say, yes, they are going to Arizona. Nice song. It also got me thinking of Arizona-related songs – mostly songs that reference my fine state or its cities in the titles.

A short list:

Wilco, Hotel Arizona.
Public Enemy, By the Time I Get to Arizona.
Pedro the Lion, Arizona.
Kings of Leon, Arizona.
Alejandro Escovedo, Arizona.
Jimmy Eat World, Goodbye Sky Harbor (Sky Harbor is Phoenix airport).
Jimmy Eat World, Anderson Mesa.
Calexico, Bisbee Blue.
Richard Buckner, Surprise AZ.

  • The Blood Arm | Going to Arizona