The Rap is a series of op-eds with mp3s that highlight local musicians and upcoming events in the Bay Area. Each week a band writes about their favorite local band, and the following week, the band that was chosen gets to chooses their favorite Bay Area group.

If you’re a Bay Area musician and would like to participate please contact us (David [at] SFCritic.com).

Written by Adam Dragland of Team Candy

Long before Blink 182 and Simple Plan did to their genre what Nickelback did to alternative rock, there were bands much like Airfix Kits defining a new style of music called punk.  This bay area trio is proof that it can be as much fun today as it was back then.  Real punk is lively music with a smart ass wit and a straight-ahead beat.  The rebellion, the angst, the attitude: it’s all there, but implied.  Why whine about the pain and injustices of life when you can snicker and entice your audience to slam dance them away?

Airfix Kits strip punk rock down to it’s Clash-flavored skeleton and brings it alive.  Their shows are fast and chaotic, always every bit as loud as good rocking demands.  Bassist Alan Kasameyer is the embodiment of their energy, channelling Mike Watt from The Minutemen in style as he flails his way across every inch of the stage.  The veteran of Your Mother and Giant Haystacks’ right hand becomes a blur of bass thumping motion; you literally can’t make out a distinct finger while he’s playing.  This freedom to groove is a testament to the steady and often pounding drums provided by Phil Lantz.  Meanwhile, singer/guitarist Allan McNaughton (also formerly of Giant Haystacks) plays the straight man to his rhythm section’s madness.  His bright clean guitar tone, Scottish accent, and dry sense of humor are the perfect contrast.  McNaughton remains firmly anchored in the song while the music spins around him.

The make or break aspect of any band is their songs, and Airfix Kits shine in this regard. Their numbers are often enhanced with call and response where everyone gets in on the action.  “Playing Both Sides” does this quite tastefully, fitting for a song about a two-timing lady.  It’s the kind of tune that demands the whole club shout the refrain in unison.  “Flex Time” may be the band’s finest moment.  It’s a song about surviving the dreaded workday that would make Frankie Goes To Hollywood smile.  How can you not love a breakdown to drums and punkapella in the middle of a song? Moments like this need to be experienced live to truly appreciate, and that’s the way music should be.

Catch the Airfix Kits February 17th at The Hemlock!

Download Mp3 – Airfix Kits: “Playing Both Sides”

Download Mp3 – Airfix Kits: “Flex Time”

About The Author:

Adam Dragland is the singer and guitarist for the San Francisco rock band Team Candy.  They’ve just released “The Tenderloin Sessions”, a 3 song demo that can be downloaded for free by clicking the link. They perform tonight at Brick and Mortar Music Hall at 8pm.

I havent been much of a Busdriver fan in the past but I am a loyal Aesop Rock fan and I can solidly say that is the reason why this track is good. Superhand Mantra that is.

In anticipation for the release of Beaus$Eros, his seventh full-length album, along with the Aesop Rock collaboration Busdriver has released the video for Kiss Me Back to Life, which leans too heavily on a Basquiat-esque self absorbed dayglo absurdist art. The imagery is more interesting than the music.

Elephant & Castle is the solo-project of David Vincent Reep. “Sweet Someone” and “I Will” are the first two singles off of Reep’s debut LP, Transitions, which was produced by Bay Area Low End king, Daddy Kev and features vocals from Merril Garbus, aka, tUnE-yArDs.

The first three singles have ambient and euphoric undertones that are calming and explorative. “I Will” is filled with warm synths pulsating with a repeating chant that sound an Active Child sample, cut, and repeated. Where “En Memoria” is orchestra of bells, distant voices, flutes, and Garbus softly singing lines like “There was once a time the time we know to wait, fall into the sun of just another day.”

The album’s slated for release on March 13th.

Track List:

1. Adjoining Souls
2. Rise
3. Derni / Paralysis
4. Altered Scones
5. En Memoria (Feat. Tune-Yards) (Download Mp3)
6. Oakland Stroll
7. The Hangar
8. Formatting… (Feat. Rachel Fannan)
9. I Will
10. RGB<<
11. Distance To The Sun

Deleted Scenes dropped by the Rickshaw Stop, sharing the stage with A Lull and Ravenna Wood. Although the woeful 49ers loss may have kept a few extra people from braving the fifth stormy night in as many days, the group played a motivated and energetic set, much to the pleasure of the attending patrons.

Fresh off of their September 2011 release, Young People’s Church of the Air, the group focused on many of their more recent songs, while mixing in hits from 2009′s Birdseed Shirt. A Lull capped the night off with their fresh take on indie rock that is percussively influenced. The two bands complimented each other, both trading-in conventional songwriting for overall aesthetic timbre. It works.

A Lull – Weapons For War

Enjoy the track.

Download Mp3 – Mark Ronson & Erykah Badu “A La Modeliste”

Does folk derive from blues? Is hip hop rooted in jazz? They say blues is an off shoot of jazz, and jazz draws from classical music, so is blues a form of classical? No matter how you look at it there’s something special about hearing the different music worlds come together.

This last Wednesday, we got to do just that when legendary jazz saxophonist Gary Bartz performed with soul and hip hop singers Bilal and Aloe Blacc at Yoshi’s Jazz Club in San Francisco for The Red Bull Music Academy showcase produced by Jill Newman.

The night began with Bartz cooly walking onto the stage wearing a plaid blazer, a bowl cap, and a big smile. Wasting no time the group jumped into their set without introducing the track. The set’s tone swayed. First, moving anxiously as the pianist spastically banged on the keys with animated “vinegar stroke” faces; and then gently settling with a slower ballad where Bartz piped fluttering notes over methodical bass patterns. By the third song, Bartz realized he hadn’t been acknowledging the crowd and took to the mic with a grin, “I’m not normally the guy introducing the songs.”

But he did not forget to acknowledge Coltrane. Bartz, whose own legend is comparable to the peers he’s played with like Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, and Miles Davis, humbly explained to the crowd how he saw Coltrane as a “warrior,” and played from his Coltrane Rules, and Coltrane’s “Pristine.”

Bilal add a fullness to the group when he joined them on stage. He began with Stevie Wonder’s “Cant Help It.,” and after the first verse, playfully improvised with Bartz, belting notes like a saxophone. When he finished, Bartz exclaimed “God damn! Doesn’t everybody wish they could sing?” Bilal’s experimentalism as a vocalist complimented Bartz’s improvisational jazz structure.

In comparison, when Aloe Blacc took to the stage to perform his hit “I Need a Dollar” it was the first, and only point in the night, where Bartz was not the centerpiece of the show. He followed with Andy Bey’s “Celestial Blues,” which was more fitting for the environment and gave the band a chance to solo their skills.

As the night came to an end Bartz welcomed both singers to join him on stage for one more nod to Coltrane with “A Love Supreme.” It was a perfect moment, the contemporary singers performing and showing their respects to Bartz, who too was paying his respects to the musician who influenced him.

People have doubted Elzhi since he started rapping. His family wanted him to get a “stable” job. After eight years as a member of Slum Village, rapper T3, the group leader, left Elzhi out of the group’s music video for “Reunion 2.” When he decided to go solo, his label said he wouldn’t make it.

For years, Elzhi discussed remaking Nas’ album Illmatic, and calling it Elmatic. Naysayers said it would never come. They questioned how he could improve on such a classic album. Then last May the album was released. It was a huge success. Despite being an independent release, both video singles “Halftime” and “It Ain’t Hard To Tell” each received over 500k views.

Before our interview with Elzhi, we looked at the album’s track titles like “Genesis,” “Detroit State Of Mind,” and “It Ain’t Hard To Tell,” and saw them like chapters to his story. So consider this interview the chapters leading up to its conclusion, the album’s release.

Additionally, we asked Elzhi to provide us with songs for each chapter to create a soundtrack for his story. Press play below, and begin.

Genesis

SF Critic (SFC): Tell me about your cousin Chris Bud. Is there a particular song I may be able to find of his that I can include on this playlist?

Elzhi: Chris Bud was huge in my eyes when I was growing up. He formed a crew called COA (Criminals of America). He was one of the best emcees on the block, if not that whole area where we stayed in. He was definitely one of the influences on me on who I am today. I don’t know if you’ll be able to find it, but the song that really sparked my interest to become an artist myself is a remake that he did to Digital Underground’s “Doowutchyalike.”

(He’s right, we couldn’t find it – we used Digital Underground’s original version.)

Detroit State Of Mind

SFC: Tell me about your background growing up in Detroit. Can you give me some examples that helped shape your “Detroit State Of Mind?” 

Elzhi: To the people that grew up in Detroit and do music, and to people that grew up in Detroit that don’t do music, we all feel like we have something to prove. We all feel like the underdogs. I feel like the energy of the riots still exist to this day because through that energy a lot of neighborhoods became hoods. Blocks aren’t the same. It’s almost as though in certain areas of Detroit it’s an apocalypse.

If somebody was to fall into a coma and wake up now in a certain area of Detroit, they would think the apocalypse had come. You have certain blocks where there is only one house. Other blocks with houses boarded up and trash everywhere. I hate to paint that picture, because it’s not like that everywhere, but for the most part waking up in that kind of environment gives you a certain kind of mentality.You feel like you got to get it. Certain people may feel that way, years go by, and they learn to accept it. Then you have certain people like me that chose to continue that path and break through.

SFC: Was there a point that you can remember being weighted down by the ills of Detroit? The song “Detroit State Of Mind” seems almost optimistic at some level because at the end of the track you say “it’s the same everywhere else,” so at least you’re saying you’re not alone. 

Elzhi: Before the Hip Hop Shop, which is this open mic I used to go to when I was younger, I felt it was hard to do what I wanted. In Michigan, people were driven to go to the [General Motors] plant because their fathers or their grandfathers went to plant. Then you had other people who went the other way and turned to the streets. It was either to make this money I’m going to move this weight or I’m going to move cars.

When I was young my peoples told me, “There are so many rappers out here, what makes you think you can get in the game?” That was a statement that I felt was something on everyone’s mind out here. When I recognized a place like The Hip Hop Shop that was my spark of inspiration and it made me optimistic about the industry.

“Detroit has always felt like it was the last ones out. We stuck together and created an energy amongst ourselves that stuck with us when we went back to our neighborhoods.”

SFC: Is there a song that reflects that Detroit state of mind experience?

Elzhi: I’ll say this song by Jay-Z called “Where I’m From” because he painted a great picture of Marcy through his lyrics and the activity scattered within the verses. That was the approach I tried to take when I wrote “Detroit State Of Mind.” I wanted people who never been to Detroit to know how it is inside the city when you scratch the surface.

Memory Lane

SFC: Tell me about The Hip Hop Shop. The environment sounded like it was really collaborative, is that true? 

Elzhi: Yeah it was a very collaborative environment. Like I said, Detroit has always felt like it was the last ones out. We stuck together and created an energy amongst ourselves that stuck with us when we went back to our neighborhoods.

SFC: There were different crews like D12. Outside of The Hip Hop Shop were you all friends or were there competitions?

Elzhi: There may have been competition behind closed doors inside certain people, but on the surface, and just speaking from me I couldn’t see it. It was more of a family thing. I was in a lot of different crews. I always talked to Proof [D12] on the phone. There is a story I rarely tell about my relationship with Proof because he was like my big brother at one point. He introduced me to Eminem. He called me on a three way so Eminem could rap for me, and this was before Eminem was Eminem. This was Proof’s friend. He might of done this to a bunch of other people, I don’t know, but he introduced Eminem to me by having him rap to me. Of course, he was phenomenal.

Thrillcall: Has the environment changed since Dilla’s death and Eminem’s emergence?

Elzhi: It changed. People feel like they have to carry on that legacy for Proof and J Dilla. Before Proof’s or Dilla’s death, they showed us that we could make it. I feel like a lot of emcees, by standing with them in the same spot, the same environments, or having conversations with Proof or Dilla, that gave them inspiration to push further. Any beefs that occurred while they were living, may have changed peoples’ mind states. That’s one of the reasons we do have a Bad Meets Evil album today.

SFC: Can you give me a song either by Dilla or Proof that reminds you of the days of The Hip Hop Shop since that seems to be an underlying theme?

Elzhi: I have to say the “Look of Love” by Slum Village. I remember Dilla coming up in The Hip Hop Shop, I don’t know if he had just recorded it that day, or mixed it that day. The Hip Hop Shop was over because it lasted from 4pm to 6pm, and there weren’t too many people in the shop. Dilla walked through the door, walking really fast like he was really proud of something towards the booth and he threw on the “Look of Love” for the first time. We might have been the first people to hear that coming straight from the studio, and that’s why I’d say the “Look of Love” by Slum Village.

Halftime

SFC: What was the greatest battle you ever witnessed in The Hip Hop Shop?

Elzhi: The greatest battle I ever witnessed was between Proof and Peter Pimp. Proof had a line where he made the Pimp stand for something. He told the Pimp that the P.I.M.P. in his name stands for “Proof is my papa.” I thought that was clever.

SFC: In rap in general what is one of your favorite battle lines?

Elzhi: I’m going to have to go to Eminem. It comes from this song called “Scary Movies” from back in the day he did this song with Royce Da 5’9 and the line goes “Any man who chooses to battle gets smashed out of his clothes so fast he looks like an invisible man standing.” The visual of that is really animated. It looked like it could be something out of a cartoon. The way he set the line up was just perfect to me.

The World is Yours

SFC: What was a moment where the world was not yours?

Elzhi: There was a time in Detroit, Michigan and I didn’t have any heat and sleeping. I was in my coat, curled up under a couple layers of blankets over me and looking at the change I had accumulated poured out on the floor. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get something to eat and just manage.

SFC: How long ago was this?

Elzhi: This was when I still in Slum Village. It wasn’t when I first got into Slum, but after the Slum Village self-titled album and Slum Village wasn’t doing anything. It was pretty rough.

“You know what . . . I forgive [T3], but I don’t forget. His actions played a part in helping me get where I am today. Once I realized he was just a vessel, it’s hard to not forgive. But, I don’t forget.”

SFC: What did you do?

Elzhi: I started writing solo songs and putting it out there that’s how you heard The Preface. I felt like people turned their back on me. Looking back on it now, nothing is really negative; it all serves a purpose that intertwines with a positive outcome.

SFC: Did you rely on your family?

Elzhi: My family was always looking for me to help them. My family at one point in time didn’t think I could make it to the level that I had. My family wanted me to work on computers, go to school, and get a job and have some kind of stability.

When things were looking bad with me being in Slum Village I didn’t feel right telling them. There was something in me that made me feel like they’d say you should have gone to school or something like that. Just recently I was able to connect with my Auntie and Grandma and we talked about those days that they didn’t know about. It’s all good, but back then I didn’t want them knowing about that. I didn’t want the world knowing that.

SFC: What is a song that reflects that low point in your life? 

Elzhi: I would say “Hey Young World” by Slick Rick. A song like that is really inspirational. When you hear that song, the things he’s talking about, it makes you think you can still get ahead.

Represent 

SFC: What is a way you’ve represented Detroit whether citing a song or action?

Elzhi: I was in New York City a few years back. This little kid saw me with a fitted cap on. He must have been at least nine or ten years old. He saw me with my brim kind of broke, kind of bent, and I guess that’s kind of a Midwest thing. This kid asked me “Why did you do that with your hat?” I was like “That’s the way we wear our hats in Michigan, we bend the brim.”

He couldn’t understand that because he was from New York. I’m not saying New Yorkers never do that, but in his life time he just knew people to throw the hat on with the flat brim. He thought I broke the hat, but really that’s just me being me. Representing the “D” means that what I did growing up, and that’s what I’m still doing.

SFC: Is there a song that represents Detroit in your mind? 

Elzhi: It’s by Trick Trick featuring Eminem and it’s called “Welcome to Detroit.”

Life’s A Bitch

SFC: Next, with “Life’s A Bitch,” you kind of described the lowest of lows, but was there a moment where you ever just said “Hell with it, life’s a bitch but I’m going to do it?”

Elzhi: One of those moments was sitting back listening to the radio hearing my former partner saying statements about me that weren’t true. Normally, I would keep a lot of stuff behind closed doors. If I did speak on it, it would be through the music, but I felt like it was my duty to get on the air and let people know that for one, some of those things he was saying weren’t true; and two, I wanted people to really know what they’re trying to do to me.

SFC: Did you and T3 ever make amends?

Elzhi: You know what . . . I forgive him, but I don’t forget. His actions played a part in helping me get where I am today. Once I realized he was just a vessel, it’s hard to not forgive. But, I don’t forget.

SFC: Is there a song that sums up this situation?

Elzhi: I am going to say “Push People” by N.E.R.D. When I hear Pharrell saying “Shit happens, just blow it off,” it’s just kind of inspiring to me. It put me in a good mood. For that moment in time it makes me not pay attention to life’s ills.

One Love

SFC: Now with “One Love” do you really believe in life there is only one love, which I assume means yourself? Would you agree with that interpretation? 

Elzhi: I look at God as being love. That question is kind of broad in my opinion, from what angle are you speaking of? I could say I love a lot of things. I love rap music. I love my little brother. I feel like God is love. If you’re looking at it that way, then yes, it’s one love.

SFC: It was meant to be open. Is there a song that reminds you that God is one love for you?

I know a song that reminds me of love. Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Just the way he speaks in that song it’s like he sees the problems in the world and he’s saying we need some love today.

It Ain’t Hard To Tell

SFC: The final question, it “Ain’t Hard To Tell.” At the end of the song you say “I thought I fell.” What part in your career is that referring to? Who are you speaking to?

Elzhi: I’m referring to that transition after the storm of all the Slum Village stuff went down. I’m speaking to people who are shape shifters that front like they’re your friends but they’re not. Who intentionally are going to back stab you or cut your throat. They might have heard of Elmatic three years back, and thought it was never going to come out. It was at a point in time when no one heard anything from me musically or anything. I am speaking on the people like my former label who I felt left me out to dry.

Download Mp3 – Elzhi “Memory Lane”

Download Mp3 – Elzhi “Halftime”

Who said gangsta rap was dead? Introducing School Boy Q. The LA rapper off Top Dawg Entertainment is also a member of the Black Hippy group featuring Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, and Ab-Soul. His latest album, Habits & Contradictions, was released earlier this month. What you got to say about “Hands On The Wheel?” Uh uh fuck that…what? Recognize that sample? It comes from Lissie’s cover of Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness.”

Download Mp3 Schoolboy Q ft. A$AP Rocky: ”Hand On The Wheel”

Photograph by Victoria Smith

A lot has changed in the four years since the release of Geographer’s debut album, Innocent Ghosts. To start, the band was praised by Spin, highly reviewed for their EP Animal Shapes, sold-out The Independent for Noise Pop Festival, and named by Live 105 as one the “Bay Area’s Top 20 Bands in 2011.” More importantly, the personal tragedies that fed lead singer Michael Deni with cathartic inspiration are now just a memory. On Myths, Deni’s focus shifts to the societal myths we uphold as truth, as he searches for his own understanding to life. “I felt like this was the first time I wrote lyrics,” Deni explained about the concept album, “when it’s said and done, we did what we tried to do and that’s the first time we’ve ever done that.”

SF Critic (SFC): And what would you say you sought out to do?

Michael Deni (MD): I wanted to write more songs that were not balls-to-the-wall, dance-extreme songs. We were really adamant with each other about wanting to have an album that was a complete experience, where every song was trying to do something different, so that no song was like, the failed dance song–or the second-awesomest dance song.

We really wanted to make something dirtier, and I know it’s not a punk record or anything, but we wanted to make something that was rough around the edges.

SFC: It’s interesting how you describe it, I definitely get the impression that this album is grittier than the last one. “The Myth of Youth” seems like a track that wouldn’t have existed either on the EP or the first LP – it’s very removed from what you’ve been doing in the past.

MD: [For] that one I was listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen. I know there’s a lot of guitar on the record, but when it started out it was all synthesizers and I was like, “there’s no guitar song on this.” I had been listening a lot to (Arcade Fire’s) The Suburbs, which is really guitar heavy and obviously very impressive, and Bruce Springsteen’s The River. I mean, I liked Bruce Springsteen before, but I went through an intense Bruce Springsteen experience for a couple months there.

SFC: So what does it mean you went through an intense Bruce Springsteen experience? Does that mean like, having breakfast with Bruce Springsteen, going to bed listening to Bruce Springsteen?

MD: Well, unfortunately we’re not in close physical contact (laughs). I do have his album The River on my bedside table, and during this phase I was consistently saying goodnight to him. I’d come home from practice and be like, “I think I did a good job tonight, Bruce. I think we’re getting close.” I had him in my mind a lot – very much lyrically, the content of his songs and the particular way he pulls the heartstrings. He just has that amazing gift to be able to tap into something people feel they all understand, even though I’ve never worked in a construction crew on the highway, and I don’t think he has either.

SFC: I have read some lauded reviews about how Geographer has stayed true to their sound, and now it sounds like you’re venturing else where before really establishing a huge presence.

MD: With this album, we really wanted to set ourselves up for the future. We want to be the kind of band that could put any song on an album, and it makes sense to people.

“I felt like this was the first time I wrote lyrics. Before, I just had to sit around and wait with my mouth open to catch something inside it and turn that into a lyrical kernel.”

SFC: It sounds like you were worried about being typecast as a band.

MD: I hesitate to say we were worried about it, because I don’t feel like we pushed any of the music in any direction. I hope we sort of guided it gently…like an elderly lady (laughs). Cause you know, if you push stuff, it’s gonna sound bad. So for us it was more the music we want to be able to play in the future – by that I mean, people will be able to come to our concert and…at least steal our record.

SFC: When we spoke almost two years ago you said to me that the lyrics just “poured out” for Innocent Ghost. Given the negative circumstances surrounding your father and sister’s death at that time, now removed from the incident, I imagine you’re at a different place.

MD: Yeah I’m still fundamentally a bit of a sad bastard, so it’s not like “I’m rock and roll!” and writing songs about hanging out with people. I do have some distance from those things, not as much as I’d like, but it’s definitely not as creatively relevant really to me right now. This record is about the things people to do cope with the profound nature of their lives. It’s not really a great place to be feeling really disconnected from the fiber of your own life or the world around you.

SFC: I brought this up because originally the group’s storyline was about transforming this tragedy into a positive creative expression. Now that you’re removed from the event, it seems that your core, at least creatively, might have changed and I wondered where your inspiration – aside from Bruce Springsteen – comes from. Were the lyrics pouring out on the page this time around?

MD: I felt like this was the first time I wrote lyrics. Before, I just had to sit around and wait with my mouth open to catch something inside it and turn that into a lyrical kernel. I was trying to be impressionistic before and create lyrical landscape as we did musical landscapes. This time I actually had a notion and it spans the whole album.

SFC: Where did this idea come from?

MD: The idea was to explore myths in our modern society. Myths were created when society was really young. A lot of the earlier myths were like “Don’t eat shellfish or animals with a hoof, because you’ll get sick” because they didn’t have sinks or toilets. I don’t mean to trivialize traditions because I’m envious of people that can relate to them.

Apparently in life we think we dispelled all those myths, and we live based on science, which actually answers the questions and is all encompassing. We take these myths very seriously and it’s almost as though they’re made real. We get a lot of them from commercials or even music. You know, like the “rock star,” he gets the babes all the time. The myth is that your pursuit will make you happy.

SFC: Is there a particular myth that we might close this with that might have an influential parallel on this album?

MD: One of my favorite ones is, when you get older you’ll understand things. That was something that I really lived with when I was young looking out the window thinking, “God I don’t understand everything, but isn’t this beautiful because one day I’m going to understand it.” That never happened. I grew up and I don’t understand.

—–

Check out Geographer for their home opener and album release party at The Independent on March 3rd.

Well you like it, just admit it.

While Ten$sions is not yet out, the single “I Fink U Freeky,” is circulating the web. At first listen it is just a crappy club purge, but then comes the fucked-up accent that we are told is South African but is more reminiscent of that dead girl who lived (?) at the bottom of the well in The Ring.

Its freaky but I like it a lot.

Download Mp3 – Die Antwoord – “I Fink U Freeky”

Check out “Evil Boy” Video from $O$