Posts tagged “Three Ninjas”

There’s so much live music goin’ on right now-ish that I’ve either just seen or am going to see! It’s crazy! Here’s a brief rundown:

• Last Friday, Carrie & I went and saw The Jesus Rehab play at The High Dive.
• SeaStar also played on Friday at the Tiger Lounge, but we weren’t able to go to both shows…
• Tuesday, 25 January: Julia Massey is at Tractor!
• Thursday, 27 January: Three Ninjas is gonna be at Tiger Lounge in some capacity.
• Thursday, 10 February: Busdriver is playing at Neumos!
• Thursday, 17 February: Three Ninjas opens for AWOL ONE and Ceschi at Chop Suey!

Here’s the really cool thing: With the exception of Busdriver’s show, I personally know someone playing in each of these shows!

Grr… now that I’m looking at that list I’m pretty positive I left something out. I can’t think of it right now, though.

*EDIT* Tangentbot pointed out in the comments that I forgot to mention that he’ll be providing the music for Three Ninjas at the Chop Suey show. SEE!? I KNEW I’D FORGET SOMETHING!

For many a year now, Busdriver has been consistently near the top of my list of favorite musicians. He’s been featured a couple of times on this here blog of mine, as well as having an album be an “Of the Month” at least once.

Earlier this year I was exposed to one of my now all-time favorite hip-hop artists, Open Mike Eagle, through my good pals Three Ninjas and NHP (Natural HyPe man). I’ve met him twice since, and his album “Unapologetic Art Rap” was my “Of the Month” back in May. He’s a really, really cool guy.

SPEAKING OF Three Ninjas, I’ve known him for a few years now, and seen him perform countless times all over the Seattle area. His latest album, “Three Ninjas is Smarter Than a Lettuce” is fantastic and you should own it and listen to it ALL OF THE TIME.

ANYWAYS. Open Mike Eagle and Busdriver collaborated on a song on “Unapologetic Art Rap” called “Original Butterscotch Confection.”

Well, now Three Ninjas has made an officially sanctioned remix of “Original Butterscotch Confection” for Open Mike Eagle! I think that the 3Ninjas remix is an improvement over the original. Threeni has turned the song into a delirious circus of sound, with an alarmingly entertaining twist in tone towards the end.

But don’t just take my word for it! Take a listen!

It’s three of my favorite hip-hop artists making frikkin’ fantastic music together. I’M SO HAPPY! Also, this remix has been mentioned in Above Ground Magazine and on Mush Records’ website!

You can download the 3Ninjas remix FOR FREE right HERE!

And also, you should own all of these albums:

Hey! It’s been a while since I made a new mix CD! Hey! I’ve gotten a metric tonne of new music in 2010! Hey! I’ve made a mix CD with a couple of songs from a bunch of new albums I’ve collected! Hey! Here it is:

1. Stylo – Gorillaz feat. Bobby Womack & Mos Def
2. West Coast Serenade – Palmdale
3. Art Rap Party – Open Mike Eagle
4. Stuff – Locust Street Taxi
5. Mike Kripke’s Basement – Three Ninjas feat. Light Bear
6. If It Feels Good It Is Good – The Jesus Rehab
7. Rapper O’s – Dumbfoundead
8. Blame It On the Girls – Mika
9. Catacombs – Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount
10. On Melancholy Hill – Gorillaz
11. Happiness Has a Half-Life – Palmdale
12. I Rock – Open Mike Eagle
13. I Miss You (It’s Quiet) – Locust Street Taxi
14. Five Finger Discount – Three Ninjas
15. Seattle – The Jesus Rehab
16. Night Riders – Dumbfoundead
17. Touches You – Mika
18. WTF is Art Rap? – Open Mike Eagle
19. Fruit Tree/Motorcycle Bong – Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount

That’s one hour and thirteen minutes of fine, quality music right there. Plus, this mix CD has a definite pattern. See if you can discern it—there’s one song out of place! Can you guess which one!?

Link of the Month:
Dinerwood
A review blog for all of the Los Angeles area’s best and worst diners, breakfast joints and coffee shops. Established May 2007. Written by my pal Mike T., this blog is frequently funny and always honest. Mike has a real love of good diners and good coffee, and this is always an entertaining (and informative if you’re ever in the outskirts of L.A.) blog to read.

Album of the Month:
Three Ninjas is Smarter Than a Lettuce
The 2nd full-length album from nerdcore maestro Three Ninjas shows remarkable technical mastery. Three Ninjas’s sampledelica style is very original and unexpected, as is his vocal style which hovers between spoken-word (Red Underwears) and rhythmically-dynamic hip-hop (Five Finger Discount). There are some problems with inconsistent mixing—the vocals in some songs are mixed too low to be easily deciphered, which is a shame when the nerdcore lyrics are so good, and the overall volume changes from song to song making it so that you have to manually adjust it to keep them all at the same level—making it seem more like a song collection than a coherent album. But the songs cover a huge range, from intensely personal hip-hop songs to fully-sung love songs to incredibly fun and silly songs (hello, Some Li’l Dude). Highly recommended.

DVD of the Month:
Farscape: The Complete Series
This was an easy choice for my DVD of the month considering that it has consumed basically ALL OF MY FREE TIME since I got the DVD set for my birfday. I devoured all 88 episodes in less than a month. This late, great Sci-Fi series about a test pilot/scientist who gets shot through a wormhole to a distant part of the galaxy succeeds, like most great shows, on the strength of its core characters. It is not without its problems—there were far too many episodes about some something-or-other damaging the ship and threatening to kill them all (especially in the final season, where they seemed really out of place)—but it is an incredibly compelling, dramatic, and wrlyly funny TV show. Don’t forget to watch the movie that serves as the series finale!

Footage has been put online, so now I’m gonna post about this! Wednesday I picked up @SphinxAkashaa and we headed up to Chop Suey in Seattle for a hip-hop show, the Hellfyre Club Tour. We actually ended up parking just a couple of blocks away from the building where tangentbot & Creepy Sheep live, and they showed up at Chop Suey as well, fresh from getting back from Japan just a couple of days earlier. In fact, a bunch of people I know showed up as well, which was very cool.

When I put on a shirt earlier in the day (as I am known to do), I unthinkingly put on my Angry Beef shirt, which ended up being kinda funny because when we were waiting outside Chop Suey, Three Ninjas and NHP came walking over with Open Mike Eagle, and I got to introduce myself as, “Chris, though you may know me as @angrybeef,” while pointing at my shirt. Mike Eagle seemed to get a kick outta that, and thanked me for tweeting and posting about the show.

There were a bunch of performers at the show. My favorites were Open Mike Eagle, Nocando, and Dumbfoundead. Dumbfoundead was really funny. For one, he was drunk off his rocker. Just smashed. But it just made him extra goofy; he could still perform excellently, he was just more prone to giggle. Very entertaining.

Open Mike Eagle did a great set, and during it two especially awesome things happened. Take a wook:

I know those guys! I’ve known one of them since kindergarten!

Nocando closed out the night with another excellent set. I must give “mad props” to DJ Zo (in the background of both of those videos), who worked the music for like four or five hours straight. He was very good.

Now I’m going to digress with some observations about Seattle Indie Hip-Hop crowds:

Seattle tends to be a little unusual in that often when Seattleites go to see a show, they go to watch the performers perform. That’s why they’re there, after all. I know this first hand from my 17 years as an improviser. If a performer asks too much of the audience, they’re going to get weary. If there are too many make-some-noises or too many put-your-hand-in-the-airs, the Seattle crowd is going to start thinking, “Why did I pay to come see this guy if they’re just going to have me do all of the work?”

A lot of times this attitude really throws out-of-towners for a loop. They often expect that if the crowd is just there to have a good time. Well, yes and no. The crowd is there to watch you perform your music or (if they don’t know who you are) to see if they like your stuff. If you want a Seattle crowd to get involved, you’re going to have to earn it by putting on an entertaining and stimulating show. They’ll give you all the noise and participation you want once they know that you’re worth it, but if you try to force it out of them then they’re going to feel put-upon and badgered and retreat into their shells.

If you come out guns blazin’ and you’re not getting the response you expected, back off and gauge the crowd. They might really be enjoying your show, just in a non-participatory way. Warm them up by being entertaining and engaging and (this is very important to a Seattle crowd) funny. Once they see that you’re a good guy, they’ll be much more willing to participate. Or, y’know, don’t even worry about the audience participation. Just put on a great show and they’ll like you.

Seattleites also don’t believe in bravado. You can’t just come out and say that you’re the best, ’cause a Seattle crowd will just cross its arms and say, “Oh, yeah? Prove it.” Attitude don’t mean shit to Seattleites. They’ll like you for your skills.

But anyway. I’m back from my digression. I picked up Three Ninjas’, Nocando’s and Dumbfoundead’s CDs (I already had Open Mike Eagle’s), and got home around 2:00 in the AM. I got to chat a little with Open Mike Eagle, and he’s a really nice guy. I’ll definitely try to catch him when he comes ’round again. I played his CD for my wife while we were driving around yesterday, and she really enjoyed it and said she might like to catch him next time as well.

I think that’s a splendid idea. I think everyone should catch Mike next time he’s in town. He’s definitely worth it.

I was just now thinking about the past 12 months and just how many of my good friends released albums. It’s kinda crazy.

Almost a year ago Three Ninjas released his P.Z. Meyers graced EP “Make Sleepstophers.”

You can get a physical CD or download it from iTunes.

Then in September 2009 tangentbot released not one, but two albums! The first was a re-mastered “Cyclops’ Lament,” which was originally created many years ago.

You can download it from Amazon mp3 or from iTunes.

The second tangentbot album was “You Are Used to This Kind of Advertising,” which collected his 40 songs from his “song-a-week” project that he did in 2006.

You can also get this one from Amazon mp3 and iTunes.

Also in September, Terrapin Productions released his first solo album, “Sketches of Perfect Landscapes.”

You can get a physical CD of this album or download it from CD Baby (more download locations are coming, too).

After that was a bit of a lull, but then suddenly within the last month or so was a crazy flurry of action! First came Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount‘s much-anticipated “I’m Not Hollow.”

This is available both as a physical CD and as downloadable mp3s through CD Baby.

Hot off the heels of Julia Massey’s album came Three Ninja’s 2nd full-length LP, “Three Ninjas is Smarter Than a Lettuce” with brilliant cover at by @rabbiddogg.

You can get a physical CD or download it from iTunes. Three Ninjas gets more money if you buy the physical CD, so I recommend that.

Then finally Nathan Geyer’s Locust Street Taxi just released their latest, “Mr. Brown.”

Right now this album is only available as a physical CD, and is mailed out personally directly from the band!

Whew! That’s a whole lot of my friends putting out a whole lot of musics! It’s very inspiring, and I really want to join them before 2010 is out. I have fancy plans, and pants to match. Let’s see if I can do it, eh?

Addendum:
I knew I’d forget something: The Seattle Pro Musica choir put out a Christmas album called “Navidad” featuring J Howard Boyd!

You can order the CD through their website. It’s full of Latin American Christmas songs from the 16th century on up!

Link of the Month:
Uvumi
A welcome haven for those artists and listeners who were forced to abandon that other music listening site that shall not be named here. This site is a wonderful way to discover indie music of many genres. Poke around and listen. Make friends and become a fan. Listen to some good music.

Album of the Month:
Polka Glocks: Hand Held Accordion Blasters
Polka Glocks is a fun hip-hop collective lead by “Davy Hamburgers,” who provides most of the easy-flow vocals. This album is at times groovy, at times funny, and always interesting. Plus my pal Three Ninjas contributes to a couple of songs (and was made an official, full-fledged member of the group after this album was produced). Take a listen and you’ll see what I mean:

Game of the Month:
Cestos
So, imagine you’re playing billiards against another person. Now imagine that each of you own only two balls each. Then, imagine that the goal of the game is to use your balls to knock your opponent’s balls into the pockets. Imagine also that whenever you strike a ball with your stick, the ball drops a tiny little explosive device that explodes whenever any ball rolls into it and makes that ball careen off in a different direction. And finally imagine that you and your opponent strike your balls at exactly the same time. That’s the gist of Cestos, and immensely fun game that is played 100% against randomly-selected LIVE opponents (you must have a wifi connection to play it). There are several different tables with different hole setups and rules (my favorite is “speedball” with only corner pockets). It is only available on Android phones!