DJ Radar’s Concerto for Turntable

I’ve talked up Z-Trip quite a bit on this site, but now I’m shifting gears (pun intended) for a post on his former Bombshelter DJs mate Radar.

If you live in the New York area, Radar is providing a special treat on Sunday. He’s performing his Concerto for Turntable, a three-movement concerto that features the turntable as the centerpiece instrument alongside sixty collegiate classical musicians. Oh, did I mention the performance is taking place at Carnegie Hall? Buy your tickets here.

Radar is like a mad scientist on the turntable. He developed a system called “scratch notation,” which, according to the concerto site, documents all of the scratching techniques that can be performed on a turntable and translates them into Western musical notation.

Watching Radar live is pretty amazing. He was the turntable technician of the Bombshelter crew. Having seen the Bombshelter boys on a regular basis back in the day, I dare say his scratching is unmatched by any of his peers. His dexterity is absurd, and his fingers move with wild precision.

I wouldn’t pass the chance to see this event.

DJ Radar | Radar Frees Tibet (Gasho mix)
DJ Radar presents Four Hand Stroke | Antimatter

And Guppies Eat Their Young

Photo by Christian Johnson

It’s high time I posted on an Arizona band. If you missed the last one on Reubens Accomplice, go do some research here. (As an update, Reubens is touring Europe in October. So, if you’re in the area, go check ‘em out.)

Today’s Ariz. pick is … And Guppies Eat Their Young. Veterans of the local scene, the Guppies have 11 releases to their name, most of which can be purchased at Stinkweeds, including 2004’s Once.

The band — Jason DiGiacomo (guitar), Ron Marschall (drums), Roland Daum (guitar, synthesizer), Sonny Coccera (bass) and Brock Ruggles (vocals, guitar) — is decidedly lo-fi through a compelling mixture of indie, alt-country and a sometimes Low-ish depressive vibe.

Ruggles’ vocals are wistful and moody, and for some reason, tend to make me nostalgic for something I’m not even sure exists. “Will the pain give up the sky to sun beams / to warm the hearts of those who grieve,” on Carolina, an indie-twangy number off Once.

Visit them at My Space here. I’m including selections off Once, but I encourage you to visit their Web site for mp3s from the rest of their catalog.

And Guppies Eat Their Young | Parking Garage
And Guppies Eat Their Young | The Warbly Parade (personal fave)
And Guppies Eat Their Young | Carolina

Seven Storey Mountain

Seven Storey Mountain is, by far, one of my favorite bands from Arizona. The best compliment I can pay is that they don’t sound like a local band, if that makes sense.

The band has undergone plenty of turnover, but the one constant is singer/songwriter/guitarist Lance Lammers, the brains of the operation. Seven Storey Mountain (which, for a short time, truncated its name to Seven Storey) has made several appearances on Deep Elm’s Emo Diaries collections. But I’m hesitant to label it “emo.” If emo is about baring your soul and getting in touch with feelings, Lammers is more about relieving the burdens of emotions in sonic thrusts. It’s relationships and reality gone awry, then examining the wreckage. Catharsis defined.

The band’s first LP, Leper Ethics, released on Art Monk Construction, is engaging and introspective. Deep Elm released the follow-ups, “Based on a True Story” (an EP) and “Dividing By Zero.” (All available through Stinkweeds.)

  

A new LP is due for release this year, and Lammers has posted four demos at the band’sspot on My Space. There are MP3s at the band’s Web site, and I have a few of my favorites to add (all recommended, including the scathing “Politician.”)

Seven Storey Mountain: Last Time (from Leper Ethics)
Seven Storey Mountain: Politician (from Based on a True Story)
Seven Storey Mountain: Halfway (from Dividing By Zero)

Supermarket — “Aisles of styles”

Digging into the crates of Arizona’s hip-hop past, Supermarket is bound to turn up. I can’t believe this album (1996) is almost 10 years old. To me, these guys represented all that was right in hip-hop: fun flows, creative beats, and they never took themselves too seriously.

The group — emcees Fluid, Ruckus and Type O and DJ Jimi the Mantis Claw — formed in 1994. That was about the time I was in college, knee-deep in all things hip-hop: A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Digable Planets … they were all at their peak. And their influence is pretty evident in Dump Koch, named in honor of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, whose vehement crackdown on graffiti ran contrary to hip-hop culture’s street-art ethos.

Supermarket also takes shots at the bluster of gangsta rap via skits (a la De La Soul) and “covergirl emcees” using all those “verbal cosmetics.” DJ Z-Trip, whose name you’ll see plenty on this site, worked production on the album. This album was great because they repped Arizona to the fullest, with mentions of the 6-0-2 — Phoenix area code, y’all — and, on True Feelings, they name-check “6th and Mill,” the main drag in downtown Tempe. On the same track, Fluid drops the perhaps the album’s best line: “I’m a hypochondriac, all my styles are sick.”

The group quietly dissolved, but last I read the guys reunited for a show in May. Be sure to peep my personal fave Frontal Lobe Piercing, which includes a guest spot from local emcee Puma.