ASTRONAUTALIS, BUSDRIVER, JEL(of THEMSELVES, SUBTLE)
Fri. 03/09 | 10:00PM
For over fifteen years the Cactus Club has been among the finest live music venues in Milwaukee, featuring such acts as The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, Interpol, Death Cab for Cutie, Trans Am, The Promise Ring, The Dirtbombs,The Spits, The Faint, Spoon, Bright Eyes, Themselves, Eyedea And Abilities, Andrew Bird, Dan Deacon, Dalek, MC Chris, The Sword, High On Fire, and countless others. Newly remodeled from top to bottom and featuring an impressive Beer and Liquor menu, we open at 3pm daily. We are located at 2496 S. Wentworth. Click here for directions. tel. 414.897.0663
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| Call Me Lightning, May 2008. All photography by Jenny Bohr. |
Fri. 03/09 | 10:00PM
Possessing a hyper-literate, intellectual style of rapping augmented with dizzying elocution that would tongue-tie even the fiercest auctioneer, Busdriver is eclectic and eccentric enough to cite vocalese jazz singer Jon Hendricks as a primary influence. Born Regan Farquhar, the Los Angeles MC was introduced to hip-hop culture early -- his father wrote the screenplay to one of the earliest films focusing on hip-hop, Krush Groove. He began rapping at age nine, releasing his first record at age 13 with his group, 4/29, named after the 1992 L.A. riots. By the mid-'90s, Busdriver was a regular at the Project Blowed open mic, where he would meet future collaborators and underground luminaries like Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, and Freestyle Fellowship. And shortly after, the vinyl did flow.
Busdriver guested on upward of 20 singles, and by 2001 he could no longer be contained by guest spots, releasing his first full-length, Memoirs of the Elephant Man. There were just as many detractors as supporters for his singular style, which was so densely packed it made his chosen name seem a reference for multiple-personality disorder, and the lo-fi production also left more listeners scratching heads than nodding them. His next album, This Machine Kills Fashion Tips (2002), continued in a similar manner before being trumped by better production and more focused rhymes on Temporary Forever the same year. Joined by another West Coast avant-garde MC, Radioinactive, and the breezy, fractured pop of electronic producer Daedelus, Busdriver released yet another odd puzzle piece in 2003, The Weather. Fear of a Black Tangent followed on Mush in 2005. After moving to Anti-/Epitaph, the rapper issued RoadKillOvercoat, which featured production from Nobody and Boom Bip. His second Anti- release, Jhelli Beam, appeared in 2009. In 2010 he put out a full-length mix tape of unreleased gems and illegal remixes called Computer Cooties. It was released as a free album.
2010 saw Bus toiling over a new album that will shock fans and confuse the unconverted into unwilling servitude. It is called Beaus$Eros and will be released in January 2012 on Fake Four.
JEL
One half of Anticon Records' duo THEMSELVES, Jel is one of the founders of the Anticon Label, as well as a producer, rapper, and member of indie experimental supergroups SUBTLE and 13 & GOD.
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