We headed over to sixth street and made our way to “512,” where rapper Busdriver was in full swing on the upstairs stage.  His impressive freestyle skills and fine taste in sampling, r.e. Can’s “Turtles Have Short Legs,” made for a good show, and the excited crowd cheered him on while he carried on an extended flow for several minutes after the music had stopped.  Busdriver is certainly talented, and the rapid speed at which he delivered rhymes is testament to that, however as he went on, there seemed to grow a sense of desperation in the rhymes as he frantically searched for the next one, just barely beating the clock and unable to formulate coherent themes, eventually saying fuck it and letting it fizzle out anticlimactically.  You could tell he was a bit disappointed in himself, as if he knew he was capable of more.  The best at the height of their craft make it seem effortless.  This was not the case for Busdriver this particular night.

We made our way downstairs to see Hanni El Khatib perform his brand of energetic guitar-and-drums duo garage rock.  Inevitable White Stripes comparisons gnaw at the back of the mind—not necessarily a bad thing, but Hanni is darker, more raw, and less ordinary than the Stripes.  If the White Stripes are a PG-13 blockbuster, Hanni is an NC17 low-budget grindhouse thriller.  He achieves a good blend of straightforward greaser rock n roll with little to no bullshit and an earnest attitude that can best be compared to the Columbian drug cartel boss’ remark to Tony Montoya in Scarface: “there’s no lying in you.”

Earlier that night when I had heard that the venue we were going to was called “512” I had seemed to remember from my haphazard SXSW schedule planning that there was a particular band playing this club on this night that I was very much excited to see, but I couldn’t quite remember who it was.  It was then, during the last song of Hanni El Khatib’s set, that I noticed Jane and Jessie from Feeding People standing to the right of the stage behind Hanni.  A transcription of my thoughts at that moment: “thank goddamn fuck heavens yes!”

It had been a few days since I saw them play in Tucson and I had been tic-twitching funkadelically awaiting another performance, although there may have been some synergy with the fact that we had had to ditch any and all drugs before the El Paso immigration/Big Brother checkpoint.  Jesse seemed to be in an especially freewheelin’ mood and reminded me at moments during the earlier parts of the first song of Ray Davies’ singing on the Kinks’  “Alcohol.”  Feeding People performed marvelously their brand of psychedelic/space rock a la Amon Düül II meets Janis Joplin and Syd Barrett fused into one frighteningly powerful cosmic entity.  A lot of bands can have a tendency to sound the same, especially considering the seemingly constant succession of performances confronted with during SXSW, but some are different.  Feeding People is DIFFERENT.  And I mean that in the best possible sense.  They will drag you down into their psychedelic sonic vortex, and you will enjoy it.  The only drawback to an otherwise great performance was that the vocals were just not turned up loud enough- Jessie can howl with the best of ‘em, but the lack of decent sound levels kept FP from putting it over the top.  It did not however keep them from shredding my mind to a bloody tabula rasa.  And this did in fact, seem an effortless task for them.

-Nick Collins

What’s it like in Kool Keith’s head? Awesome as fuck, but once you come out, the rest of the world is just like a blank gray screen. But whatever, it’s worth it. Since Kool Keith is playing in a matter of MINUTES, we asked our contestants to pick a YouTube to inspire his next album. We got some weird entries, trust us. But first prize—which is TWO TICKETS to the show AND the Critical Beatdown LP—goes to…

FIRST PRIZE: K.R. with “MUD BUTT”

Gotta say, this has tons of Keith-ian potential. Twilight Zone + bodily functions (“doo doo”) is a formula Keith could really explode. A whole album about how food is out to kill you in unexpected ways … and then people try and make you listen to music you don’t wanna hear? That’ll work fine. Congrats, K.R.! You get two tickets AND there will be an LP of Critical Beatdown waiting at the show for you!

SECOND PRIZE: ANTONIO A. with “SEXY WHITE GIRL BOOTY BOUNCE”

We couldn’t say no to this impassioned argument: “No matter what music search I’m doing, YouTube always leads me in the direction of white girls doing booty bouncing videos. I’m pretty sure this concept will be nixed immediately but I had to throw it out there. Affirmative action in the form of White Booty. These girls are flipping the game!” A new twist on a classic? Sure. Enjoy your two free tickets! Pick ‘em up at the door.

RUNNERS UP

Many of these rule yet Keith’s discography encompasses so much … it took some tough calls.But thanks for entering. You will all be on the discount list tonight!

DANA D. “SANDI AND SALLY”

TYSON H. “TRANSFORMERS PIMP”

JONAS W. “HOMER SCRATCHING”

(A Keith Simpsons album could be killer…)

RSVP TO RSVP@LARECORD.COM WITH SUBJECT ‘KOOL’ FOR $5 DISCOUNT OR WIN TICKETS HERE!

UPDATE: Discount RSVP closes at 5! Email rsvp@larecord.com subj KOOL now to get $5 off! DISCOUNT RSVP CLOSED!

So… Kool Keith just rolled into town and grabbed after us to do a show, and we knew a spot and so … here we are! The halfmanhalfweirdaliashalfblackelvis himself appearing live at Dark Horse a.k.a. Bordello at 901 E. 1st St. downtown with support from L.A. wordmutilators and L.A. RECORD alums Nocando and Busdriver! Plus DJs Denis Deft, Yeti Beats and Zane from Killing Spree!

$20 gets everyone else in BUT since you are reading larecord.com we can get a little better—just RSVP to rsvp@larecord.com with subject KOOL and you will get $5 off and get in for $15.

And if that is not better enough? OK—then email rsvp@larecord.com with subject KEITH and a YouTube of something you think should inspire the next Kool Keith album and the koolkeithiest will win two tickets! (And we’ll add all contestants to the $15 list so you can still get in cheaper even if you don’t win!)

Is THAT not better enough? OK—first prize will win TWO TICKETS and a vinyl LP of Critical Beatdown, the first LP by Kool Keith’s first band the Ultramagnetic MCs, courtesy of Chris having an extra in his collection. (It’s in very nice shape, don’t you worry, nerdos.) And second prize will get the two tickets only.

That good? Get to emailing and see you Saturday!

L.A. RECORD PRESENTS KOOL KEITH WITH NOCANDO AND BUSDRIVER PLUS DJs DENIS DEFT, YETI BEATS AND ZANE (KILLING SPREE) ON SAT., JULY 9, AT DARK HORSE, 901 E. 1ST ST., DOWNTOWN. 9 PM / $20 / $15 WITH RSVP TO RSVP@LARECORD.COM AND SUBJECT “KOOL” / 21+.

Download: Busdriver x Flying Lotus “Man Baby // Computer Face // Pure Being”

(from the Computer Cooties mixtape—also featuring Free The Robots, Holy Fuck, Daedelus and more—releasing this summer!)

Here’s a list only focusing on the electronic side of sounds from this newest previous decade.  One strong caveat to avoid bad taste: I am exempting any sounds I had even the slightest part of, even if I think them to be strong contenders for this list.  Sorry Madvillian, Jogger, Long Lost, etc!

Vex’d – Degenerate
Shena Ringo – Kalk Samen Kurinohana
Mr. Oizo – Moustache (Half a Scissor)
Dizzee Rascal – Boy In Da Corner
Venetian Snares – The Chocolate Wheelchair Album
Busdriver – Temporary Forever
Bullion – Pet Sounds: In The Key Of Dee
Zomby – One Foot Ahead Of The Other
Chessie – Overnight
Quasimoto – The Further Adventures of Lord Quas

Thank you for the possibility to join in the fun!

-Daedelus