A snippet of new music from Alias set to some 90210 and crip walkin, taken from his forthcoming solo due out some time this year.

via Flavor$

Alias’ remix for “2 times 2” by Serengeti & Polyphonic from their album Don’t Give Up. New album titled Terradactyl on Anticon will be out in June. via ugsmag

Serengeti & Polyphonic – 2 times 2 (Alias Remix)

Download [.mp3] Buck 65, Live from the 3rd Annual Anticon 10 Year Anniversary Show in NYC

Download [.mp3] Alias and Sole, Live from the 3rd Annual Anticon 10 Year Anniversary Show in NYC

Download [.mp3] Why, Live from the 3rd Annual Anticon 10 Year Anniversary Show in NYC

The whole Anticon crew celebrating their 10 year anniversary for the third straight time. I guess they couldn’t wait till the next rounded number. This is only one of several great shows coming up at the Knitting Factory in December. buy tickets

Thursday, Dec 18, 2008 // DOORS 7:00 PM
ADV $20 // DOS $25

Knitting Factory – New York
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY 10013

Saturday, Sep 13, 2008 // DOORS 8:00 PM
ADV $15 // DOS $17

Knitting Factory – New York
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY 10013

I still check for Beck. Beck 2008 > Alias from Anticon 2008. via Stereogum

Forthcoming new instrumental album from Alias.

Another entry into the Nude remix challenge, this time handled by an old acquaintance, Bobby Corridor. About 6 or 7 years ago this guy sent me a few beat cds filled with grimey drums and remixed verses of some of my favorite artists. I don’t remember exactly how we met, probably on some now-defunct hip-hop forum. In any case, I came across his remix and thought it was pretty good. It at least deserves as many votes, if not more, as the Alias remix I put up a few weeks ago.

I was hoping for something a bit more bold with raps and drum breaks. I forgot Alias tends to go all electronicy sometimes. Still not bad though. Fits Radiohead’s sound.

Free download of Uck Rt, a limited edition tour CDR sold by Sole on the Selling Live Water tour in 2001. Download (via)

the story of fuck art is as follows….

selling live water was initially to be produced solely by alias. these were just songs i made in my house during that period…. stuff with nosdam and jel wasnt gonna go on there…. so i took all the stuff i had laying around and made uckrt. then, after the prodding of friends everyone thought i should take all the best stuff i had lying around and make put it on selling live water and it sounded like a good idea. because i was moving forward with other projects i never bothered doing anything with this older stuff. thats the story. i dont know how many copies i made of uckrt…. 500-1000.

For this week only, you can stream the lead single off of The Ugly Truth, a new collabo album from Prolyphic and Reanimator. I’m really liking the production, which sounds like it includes some elements from his Music To Slit Wrists By release. link, buy Reanimator’s Music To Slit Wrists By instrumental album

This is the debut single of Prolyphic & Reanimator, the 1st group signed to Strange Famous Records. It features SAGE FRANCIS, ALIAS, B. DOLAN and it’s a prelude to their “The Ugly Truth” LP which drops in April ’08.

Wow, has it really been almost ten years since Anticon started out? Looking back, I probably own every release until about 2002. The Centaur 12inch with 15 Minutes To Live on the flip-side. The dope Controller 7 remix of Rain Men. Man Overboard with the great cover art. Joyful Toy of 1001 Faces. Bottle Of Humans. Deep Puddle Dynamics. The list goes on and on. And the live performances were just as impressive. One of my all-time favorite shows was Sole, Alias, Josh Martinez and Sage Francis performing on a Brooklyn rooftop.

Anyway, good interview here. The collective of Why, Odd Nosdam, Dose-One, Jel, Sole and Alias sound off on a number of topics such as their past and current role at the label, the legacy of Anticon and a possible documentary in the works. Link

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the label about to turn ten? That seems a significant benchmark for an independent to reach, especially these days. Looking back on your achievements – both personally and collectively – are you pleased with how far you’ve travelled as a creative force?

Why: I’m quite pleased with the progress of the label. We went from an artist-run mess of a posse / collective / label who released basically only our own music in the late ‘90s to a real-deal label capable of releasing albums by anybody we find fit and willing, with a dedicated label manager and a decent sized base of listeners.

Jel: From working off of 4-track tape machines and recording on DAT and ADAT with minimal instrumentation in the music, to most of us forming live bands and focusing our careers on that aspect of music making. I think we all have really refined our skills as musicians and cracked the shell of ‘beat maker’, ‘rapper’ and ‘DJ’.

On record and in previous interviews I’ve read, you seem like a fairly headstrong collective; to what extent do you feel as though the label has succeeded in the music industry on its own terms?

Jel: Largely, and that reflects on the creative output very positively. But on the financial side it’s not so positive… sustainable.

Dose-One: Being DIY can become a bit of a barbed wire fence and being unique musically can be a bit of a glass ceiling. As a record label we want to not have any ‘keep out’ signs on our property or ‘stay put’ signs in our future. By and large, we have secured a way for our music to always see daylight and its way to headphones.

Sole: The machine dictates how the business is run: we’re slaves to release dates and the need for forms of marketing; it’s a constant uphill battle against the constraints the music industry places on anyone who wishes to run that gauntlet.

Alias: For the most part, anticon isn’t a business that is set up to take care of the artists 100 per cent of the time. You have to do a bit of your own hustling as well, which is absolutely fine by me. It has taught me a lot about the business, and that you have to give to get. You can’t just sit back and expect the label to handle everything for you. This has allowed me to have 100 per cent creative control with every aspect of my career. I don’t have a manager taking a percentage of money when I would be telling them what I want to do in the first place. I like handling my own business.

Tim Holland, Bud Berning, William Ryan Fritch and John Wagner are Sole And The Skyrider Band. Haven’t been this excited about a Sole project since Bottle Of Humans. The band provides a nice conglomeration of live and electronic sounds that compliment his unapologetic whine. At least it sounds that way to me. Listen for yourself.

Download snippet of Shipwreckers by Sole and The Skyrider Band
UPDATE: Download full version courtesy of Anticon Records (via 15mintolive)

mysp*ce.com/soleandtheskyriderband

Though Sole had spent most of his career working with celebrated producers—primarily Alias, Odd Nosdam (of cLOUDDEAD), and JEL (of subtle)—by 2005 he had for some time been looking for a working relationship with a more exclusively focused yet also uniquely talented group of musicians. His solo instrumental work, released in 2005 on Morr Music and in 2007 on anticon as mansbestfriend, and his yearlong collaboration with half of Barcelona’s Tortoise-like improvational outfit Twelve were aspects of this search. On tour with Dosh, Pedestrian, and Telephone Jim Jesus in 2005, fate landed the caravan at the tropical home of Bud Berning, an electronic musician and dub drummer then recording solo work as Skyrider. Intrigued by Skyrider’s sound, Sole later returned to Orlando on a short tour of the Southeast and collaborated with Berning and two musicians who had recently joined the Skyrider fold. Not naturally attracted to music born of machines, Bud had only begun tinkering with computers while immobilized after a coma resulting from a traumatic collision in Mexico City in 2002. The two instrumentalists Berning recruited, Tennessee native John Wagner and omni-instrumentalist William Ryan Fritch, not only fleshed out Berning’s sample-based ideas, but also added their own distinct musical voices. As Sole and Skyrider played, sparks struck, and Sole had the quickness of mind to immediately invite Skyrider to move to Flagstaff and record an album.

Against all odds, the band accepted the offer and before long found themselves sharing a house in Flagstaff. Nearly the moment they arrived, Skyrider began playing and recording intensely at Sole’s studio, set at an eight thousand foot elevation at the foot of a mountain amid a garden of collard greens, melons, and green beans. Sole promptly scrapped the ten or so songs he’d already recorded towards an album—with a formidable line-up of producers, no less—and devoted himself fully to realizing the distinct sound he’d long heard only in his own head and further sharpening his art of battle rapping the biggest of enemies: empire, ennui, the industries of distraction, and, not least of all, himself.

Their self titled debut will be released October 23, 2007 on anticon records.

Link

HUMAN the DEATH DANCE TOUR

Sage Francis with a live band
Buck 65
Alias
Buddy Wakefield

5/23 Boston, Massachusetts @ Middle East Downstairs, 8pm
5/24 Boston, Massachusetts @ Middle East Downstairs, 8pm
5/25 New York, New York @ Bowery Ballroom, 8pm
5/26 New York, New York @ Bowery Ballroom, 8pm
5/27 Long Island, New York @ Crazy Donkey, 8pm
5/29 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania @ Trocadero, 8pm
5/30 Baltimore, Maryland @ Ottobar, 8pm
5/31 Washington DC @ Rock And Roll Hotel DC, 8pm
6/01 Chapel Hill, North Carolina @ Cat’s Cradle, 8pm
6/02 Atlanta, Georgia @ Masquerade, 8pm
6/04 Orlando, Florida @ Firestone, 8pm
6/06 New Orleans, Louisiana @ House Of Blues, 8pm
6/07 Houston, Texas @ Warehouse Live, 8pm
6/08 Dallas, Texas @ Granada, 8pm
6/09 Austin, Texas @ Emo’s, 8pm
6/11 Albuquerque, New Mexico @ Launchpad, 8pm
6/12 Phoenix, Arizona @ Clubhouse, 8pm
6/13 Tucson, Arizona @ Club Congress, 8pm
6/15 Los Angeles, California @ Henry Fonda Theater, 8pm
6/16 Pomona, California @ Glasshouse, 8pm
6/17 San Diego, California @ Soma, 8pm
6/19 San Francisco, California @ The Fillmore, 8pm
6/20 San Francisco, California @ The Fillmore, 8pm
6/22 Portland, Oregon @ The Roseland, 8pm
6/23 Seattle, Washington @ The Showbox, 8pm
6/24 Bellingham, Washington @ Night Light Theater, 8pm
6/25 Bend, Oregon @ Pavillion, 8pm
6/27 Boise, Idaho @ The Venue, 8pm
6/28 Salt Lake City, Utah @ In The Venue, 8pm
6/29 Denver, Colorado @ Gothic Theater, 8pm
6/30 Denver, Colorado @ Gothic Theater, 8pm
7/02 Omaha, Nebraska @ Sokol Hall, 8pm
7/03 Iowa City, IA @ Picadero, 8pm
7/05 Minneapolis, Minnesota @ First Ave, 8pm
7/06 Chicago, Illinois @ Abbey Pub, 8pm
7/07 Chicago, Illinois @ Abbey Pub, 8pm
7/09 Grand Rapids, Michigan @ Intersection, 8pm
7/10 Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick, 8pm
7/11 Cleveland Heights, Ohio @ Grog Shop, 8pm
7/12 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania @ Mr. Smalls, 8pm
7/13 Providence, Rhode Island @ Lupo’s, 8pm

7/28 New York, New York @ Rock the Bells – Randall’s Island, 11am
8/11 San Bernardino, California @ Rock the Bells – NOS Event Center, 11am
8/18 San Francisco, California @ Rock the Bells – McCovey Cove Parking Lot, 11am

see also:
Sage Francis – Got Up This Morning video
Sage Francis – Human The Death Dance Unplugged
[Audiocast] Sage Francis – Underground For Dummies
Sage Francis Speaks on Human The Death Dance

Stream Underground For Dummies by Sage Francis

Underground for Dummies is a solid track off Sage Francis’ new album titled Human the Death Dance, which features production by Odd Nosdam, Buck 65, Alias, Sixtoo, Ant and Reanimator among others. If you preorder it now, you’ll get a whole bunch of goodies for free! Buy the album

myspace.com/sagefrancis

Participation is critical, support the artist and they will support you!

Link

I’ve decided to do a video blog while I work on my new record. Every week or so, I’ll be putting up a little slice of video of something having to do with this new instrumental solo record I’m working on. I have a few guest spots lined up, and you’ll hear them as I work on them……

here is the first one…..I’m working on a song that will definately be on my record, just not sure if all the elements you hear will make the final cut…..I’m singing and playing guitar on this song…..it’s a demo, so nothing is official…..peep it:

Blueprint – Mission Statement
Official
Buy

C-Rayz Walz – We Live
Official
Buy

MF Doom and MC Paul Barman – Hot Guacamole (Produced by Prince Paul)
Official
Buy

Nas and AZ – Serious
Official
Buy

Noah23 and Ceschi – Chicken Soup
Official
Buy

Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Thirsty
Ol’ Dirty Bastard with Rhymefest – Dirty Dirty – not from album
Official
Buy

Pedestrian – anticon
Official1, Official2
Buy 1/24/04

Sage Francis with Will Oldham – Sea Lion (produced by alias)
Official1, Official2
Buy 1/10/04

Sole – Sin Carne
Official1, Official2
Buy 1/24/05