Vic Mensa: "YNSP"
The buzz around Vic Mensa's solo release, Innanetape, is growing and in the lead up to the release September 30 Vic dropped "YNSP" yesterday. The track is very well done and sets the stage for a different kind of rap mixtape. Check out the song below and keep it posted for the album release next week.
[Video] ProbCause: "Prelude to Summer Pt. 1"
Photo By: Alexander Richter
He may be out of town, on tour with Cherub, but the homie ProbCause dropped a new video, "Prelude to Summer Pt. 1" featuring footage from his North Coast set, as well as party scenes from The O'My's place a couple weeks ago. The track, produced by Na$im Williams and Drew Mantia gets some visual aid from Elijah Alvarado who shot and edited. If nothing else, Prob always knows how to put on for Chicago and this video is as hometown as it gets, "the city that works, but also knows how to relax." If you haven't already, pick up The Recipe Vol. 2 and check in on Prob as he crosses the country on tour.
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[RH Interview] Sandra Vu of SISU
Transitions aren't easy. For some, change comes easy and they slide into the new routine, for others it's a bit more difficult to adjust. Sandy Vu of the Los Angeles-based band Dum Dum Girls falls somewhere between the former and latter. Vu, who entered the scene as the drummer for Dee Dee Penny's all-female project steps out from behind the drum set on a new venture of her own, SISU. Where she was a moving part in the Dum Dum Girls, Vu is free to creatively express herself with the new band, moving about from on instrument to another and crafting a sound that is wholly hers. The transition hasn't been an easy one though. As anyone with a lot on their plate can attest to, starting a new band while in another is no easy task. I caught up with Sandy, who plays The Empty Bottle in Chicago tomorrow night, as she was just getting out on tour with Dirty Beaches in support of her upcoming album, Blood Tears, out on Mono Prism September 17th.
Jake: Tell me a bit about the tour and opening for Dirty Beaches.
Sandy: We have been super excited to play with Dirty Beaches, I met him about two years ago now when Dum Dum Girls did a tour with him and it's just going to be special because we're all family at this point. Their tout manager is our good friend and stuff so it's kind of like a big reunion party.
Jake: What was the transition like coming from the Dum Dum Girls?
Sandy: The Dum Dum Girls have been in town rehearsing and learning the new songs for the new record and we're doing rehearsals for the tour for SISU, so if I didn't have anything else to do and I just had to go to these rehearsals it wouldn't be that bad but my days are just stacked with things I needed to do to get ready for the tour. Switching gears is not hard, it's maybe a little bit stressful learning a lot of new material in a short amount of time. Going from Dum Dum Girls to SISU, in itself, isn't that big of a deal to me.
Jake: Do you ever find yourself at a Dum Dum Girls rehearsal accidentally playing a SISU song?
Sandy: No (laughs), I think it occupies two totally different areas of my brain to just play drums compared to leading the band so it feels so different. In Dum Dum Girls it's like I kind of turn off my brain a little bit. That band is set up so I just learn all of the songs and just play them (laughs).
[Interview] North Coast Music Festival 2013: Cherub
Photos by Bobby Reys
Cherub has been steadily building a name for themselves since crossing paths three years ago with a common musical goal. It was simple, guitarist Jordan Kelley had a sound he wasn't quite sure how to achieve, Jason Huber had just the voice and production skills to make it happen. Having found each other in Nashville, TN, the pair created Cherub, a hybrid dance/funk electro-pop that has drawn comparisons to Prince and Pharrell. Over the past two years the duo have watched their stars rise exponentially, playing Bonaroo and Electric Forest, along with a successful SXSW in Austin last year buoyed by supports from the Red Bull Sound Select series. This year Jason and Jordan jumped on tour with Gramatik in the spring and, with festival season out of the way, will begin a Fall tour with ProbCause, Mansions on the Moon and Pell. We had the opportunity to sit down with the pair before the played the Dos Equis stage, check out the conversation below.
Jake: The two of you have had a crazy year or so since latching on with the Red Bull Sound Select series, what's it been like?
Jason: I mean it's been a really crazy year, we've had to take a lot of pictures of moments and step back. We've just been kind of doing our thing and then all of a sudden you'll look back and be like "woah, this is really awesome what we're getting to do." We've had so many amazing opportunities, all the stuff through Red Bull-they've just been putting us on time and time again and have been super awesome about letting us do our own thing and supporting what we're doing-it's been a really great way for us to continue doing exactly what we're doing and do cool stuff at the same time.
Jake: Yeah, the Red Bull show at SXSW in Austin was where I first saw you, all the way back at the beginning of festival season.
Jordan: Yeah, this year's SXSW was a total redemption for the year before. We had a shitty first year we went there and totally redeemed ourselves and it was great.
Jason: We played our first gay bar at SXSW this year. It was a great show, a really, really great show.