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The KLF - The White Room - Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012
The Orb Saved My Life - Monday, Sept. 10, 2012
Fire On Babylon - Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012
N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton - Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2012
the flaming lips and heady fwends or, the freaks are slowly taking over - Thursday, Jul. 19, 2012

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Wednesday, Oct. 08, 2003 | 08:56

Adventures in Modern Music @ Empty Bottle

{AIMM entry here soon}

Monday, Sept. 29, 2003 | 21:57

Aesop Rock @ Bottom Lounge 9/25/03

first off, i want to apologise for the lateness of this entry. and the following ones. i saw Aesop Rock at Bottom Lounge nearly a week ago, and because my weekend was crazy i haven't had a chance to write about it until now. i'm probably going to forget a few things.

basically, Aesop Rock has a new album out (Bazooka Tooth), so El-P put together a tour of Def Jux acts, featuring Aesop Rock to promote his album. this is a good thing, because it means everyone who takes the stage knows each other, and they can band together towards the end and light up the crowd even more. plus, El-P gets to hype a lesser-known act from his label while also getting his headliner's name out there more.

so Copywrite and Illogic opened, with DJ Przm on decks. they were a great team, with Copywrite leading mostly and Illogic throwing down on some verses. not only did they play off each other well, they could both solo on their own. on a few songs, DJ Przm stepped out to beatbox while the duo let loose their torrent of rhymes.

the crowd was into it from go, and it only got crazier. basically, these people were there for Aesop Rock, but knew enough about Def Jux that they dug the opener just fine. towards the end of their set DJ Przm tossed out a few of his own cds, and i just happened to catch one with my fingertips. i haven't heard all of it, and it has minimal information, but it sounds like a sampler of his work with rappers and some other stuff.

then came Aesop Rock and El-P with DJ Beat Wiz on decks. let me just say, Beat Wiz is deserving of his name, and played a great show. the mcs even stepped off stage a few times to let him go, and the crowd loved it.

what they liked more, though, was Aesop Rock and El-P. this was mostly Aesop's show, though they did throw in the occasional El-P track where Aesop guested or collaborated. the duo went back to the rawkus label track "Patriotism" and caught a few from Labor Days and the Daylight ep, but stuck mostly with new material. i hadn't actually had time to hear the album yet, so the songs sounded pretty good. i think i agree with most reviewers that it is a let down after the excellent Labor Days, but the live show gave no indication of that. partially this was because the production was limited to a pair of turntables playing the backing tracks, and the mcs played around with the songs a bit and worked in enough audience participation to keep things exciting. they shortened a few songs, which in retrospect would have made the album songs more effective. towards the end of their set they brought out copywrite and illogic for some freestyle, and we got to see some real mc skills. El-P seems the least gifted of this quartet, but he is by no means lacking in the talent division.

mostly these artists rap about social ills and their own greatness--and what they do to wack mcs--but el-p opened a song telling us he wasn't very political by nature, but if something bad should happen to president bush, well, he might have a little sympathy for the bush girsl ("drunken sluts that they are"), but overall wouldn't feel that bad. he exhorted us to vote satan out of office next fall before launching into "Babies With Guns", an anti-violence song from Bazooka Tooth. this song, too, the cut short. in fact, there seemed to be some miscommunication between Aesop Rock and DJ Beat Wiz, because the beat changed before the last verse and El-P had to cover the jump into another song.

when the show had ended and people were filing out, Ace Rock came back and delivered the final verse, which is a doozy but key to the song. it ended the night on a political tone, on an unhappy with the way things are tip, which i think was good. while we all had a good time jumping and rocking, we also got a lesson in today's problems and some ideas for what we can do about them.

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