Bun B, Rap-A-Lot, Zune Host Rap Contest

His Ill Trill release is blowing up charts and record store shelves. Now, Bun B has joined forces with Rap-A-Lot Records and Zune, and the three parties are on the hunt for rap’s next star.

The Houston-based rapper and XLR8R cover artist has made an exclusive instrumental MP3 available for download at the Zune Marketplace. Interested contestants have until July 1 to record their own original rap over the track and submit it to Rap-A-Lot.

One winner will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Houston, where they will record the track with Bun in a studio, have a chance for an exclusive recording deal, and have their track featured on the Zune Marketplace in September.

Grab the instrumental here, and be sure to read up on contest rules and submission guidelines. Then get rapping.

Read Jesse Serwer’s April interview with Bun B.

Photo by Jack Thompson.

Buck 65 to Sell Stage Vinyl on eBay

Of all the MySpace bulletins we received this morning at the XLR8R office, the one about Canadian rapper Buck 65 auctioning his stage vinyl on eBay was the most surprising. Not that artists can’t sell things to the masses via that site, but Buck was pretty emphatic about the record’s worth and glory, not to mention the fact that he wants fans to “pay top dollar for it” and to “support a good cause: suffering weirdo musician.”

From the man himself:

“Recently I had the worst night of my entire life and this god-forsaken LP was mixed up in the whole mess. Now it just holds a painful memory for me. Every time I look at it I get sick. Please help me in my time of need. Take this beautiful and evil record off my hands. Frame it. Use it your damn self. Light it on fire. It changed my life and it will change yours.”

Interested buyers and those simply curious can head to the eBay listing to read more on why Buck 65 needs to unload this record.

Does it Offend You, Yeah? Preps Tour

With an aural arsenal of punk rhythms, white noise, and screeching guitars, not to mention a few electro flavors, Does it Offend You, Yeah? has kept busy this year further blurring the boundary between rock and dance music (not that there’s much of a boundary to blur these days). The Reading, England-based trio will head Stateside at the end of July to show off their chops in the live setting, with a handful of dates in the U.S. and Canada. Their tour mates? The boys will be opening for fellow Brit-rockers Bloc Party for the majority of the performances, before joining Nine Inch Nails at the end of the summer for a couple dates.

Read more on Does it Offend You, Yeah? in a recent XLR8Rfeature.

Dates
7/28 Pomona, CA: The Glass House*
7/29 Los Angeles, CA: Mayan Theatre*
7/30 San Francisco, CA: Fillmore*
8/01-03 Chicago, IL: Lollapalooza
8/04 Toronto, ON: Drakes
8/05 Philadelphia, PA: Theatre of Living Arts*
8/06 New York, NY: Webster Hall*
88/27 East Rutherford, NJ: Izod Center**
08/29 Philadelphia, PA: Wachovia Center**

* = w/ Bloc Party
** = w/ Nine Inch Nails

Midnight Juggernauts Dystopia

Having gained wide exposure after opening for Justice last year, Australian trio Midnight Juggernauts releases Dystopia, a spotty debut. The record is hard to pin down because of its attempt to incorporate so many genre elements–Pink Floyd psych, Air-like atmospherics, synth-pop, and more–and ultimately flounders because of its lack of cohesion. Some tracks, like the widely blogged-about “Road to Recovery” set rock harmonies atop Justice-y beats; others ape Eno over dancing synths (the disc’s standout “Twenty Thousand Leagues”). Still others try for vocal-less atmospherics (“Intro,” “Scorpius”) that fail. Dystopia isn’t a bad record–it may very well find an audience of, say, Klaxons fans–but it leaves listeners unsure as to what this band is exactly about.

Z Man w/ Dnae Beats “Shuddup”

S.F.-based label Machete Vox is set to unleash its first sampler, Sneak Preview and from the sounds of it, the compilation is shaping up to be a fine showcase of Bay Area hip-hop from the likes of Dnae Beats, Boac, Conceit, Million Bucks, and even an appearance from Gift of Gab. Z Man–who also drew the cover for Sneak Preview–provided us with this track off the sampler, which features Dnae Beats on production duties.

Z-Man and Dnae Beats – Shuddup

Don’t Stop the Rock: Part 5

Now that the wall between rock purism and the digital dancefloor has been reduced to mere rubble, a suite of newer, harder, brighter, faster bands are getting down to the business at hand: having a good time. In our final installment of this series, Britain’s newest illusionists, These New Puritans, conjure up Wu-Tang-inspired attack rock.

British band These New Puritans are enigmatic. Or at least they attempt to be. “We approached the band like casting a spell,” states frontman Jack Barnett. “We’re more magicians than musicians.”

Eccentricity has been a hallmark of the four-piece since they formed in 2005–and having a demonstrative pronoun in their name is just the start. The band’s hyped debut, Beat Pyramid,overflows with cryptic phrases and song fragments that are constantly repeated and referenced. When Barnett repeats the line “Every number has a meaning” on the jittery “Numerology,” he hammers home a lyrical conceit and a numeric obsession. On “Sword of Truth,” he mutters something about “riding the airwaves,” and occasionally seems to be in the middle of his own esoteric radio broadcast, uttering phrases that fall somewhere in between nonsense and coded message.

Barnett is a devoted Wu-Tang fan, and while his hometown of Southend-on-Sea is far from Staten Island, he shares the rap group’s obsession with conspiracies, double meanings, and hidden objects. At one point the band members even toyed with the idea of naming their debut album Liquid Swords, a GZA tribute that would have befitted their agressive sound: an amalgam of post-punk riffs, warning-siren synths, and jarring, shouted lyrics that Barnett describes as “attack music.”

Produced by Gareth Jones, who has worked with Wire and Liars, Beat Pyramid fashions the sounds of scraping knives and field recordings from shooting ranges into bludgeoning rhythm tracks. Post-industrial angst courses throughout in the form of snarling guitars, mechanical rhythms, and a piston-like bass lick on “En Papier.” Other tracks like “Colours” build to ecstatic crescendos, fitting into the song template established by groups like Bloc Party and Klaxons.

Initially, the album was supposed to be even weirder. Originally conceived as a tribute to London, it was going to contain field recordings from different parts of the city–when the locations were plotted on a map, the resulting shape would be an infinity sign (a reference that appears frequently in the group’s music videos). This sort of high-concept mysticism can come off as cute affectation or something more “meta,” but unlike Wu-Tang, Barnett doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories or numerology, merely viewing them as “useful ideas.”

So is there a reward for fans who sift through the album’s clues and half-truths? “They’ll achieve a spiritual calm,” says a droll Barnett. “Or not.”

Don’t Stop The Rock Part 1: Cut Copy
Don’t Stop The Rock Part 2: Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Don’t Stop The Rock Part 3: Late of the Pier
Don’t Stop The Rock Part 4: The Teenagers

J-Live Then What Happened?

Call J-Live stubborn, but this NYC native isn’t one to conform to hip-hop’s movements of the moment. Aside from an awkwardly attempted club track (“The Zone”), the MC/DJ/producer’s new album sticks to his longtime true-school spirit. And his persistence amounts to mostly palatable results. The xylophone-tinged “It Don’t Stop” is a prime example of how J’s love of hip-hop culture over wealth has only grown stronger via lines like, “Even as an amateur/I shall proceed to add to the cipher/Drop a trail of jewels/That lead to a time where conscious is cool.” It doesn’t matter if he’s rapping about perseverance or getting personal about his broken marriage–J-Live remains a voice that deserves to be heard.

David Ramos This Up Here

David Ramos’ This Up Here is a self-produced fuck-fest of sounds; synths, keyboards, guitars, drum loops, melodic harmonies, and choppy-cadenced rhymes meld together. He flexes his multi-instrumental muscle, dropping gems like “Kings and Queens” and “Satellite,” which bask in psychedelic indie-pop glory. “Looked At” is a wacky soundclash with eerie synths that abruptly shift to an upbeat marching-band pop tune and back again–with a Project Blowed-like flow sprinkled on top (he has provided beats for Aceyalone and Busdriver, after all). But the rapping isn’t always pleasing, like on his life and love diatribes “Breathe” and “Don’t Exist.” Yet somehow he makes it all work, crafting an eclectic record where experimental indie rap and fuzzy lullabies play together.

Twine “Disconnected”

Said to be “a requiem for the new dark age,” Twine‘s fourth full-length, Violets is a musical canvas of sparse guitars, distorted vocals, and fractured drum programming that keeps the listener guessing. For the album, the Greg Malcolm and Chad Mossholder drew inspiration out of everything from current affairs to day-to-day domestic existence. “Disconnected” is an entirely instrumental track that retains a haunting quality throughout its four minutes and strikes a nice balance between an abstract composition and a poignant, melody-driven song.

Twine – Disconnected

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