Kyle Gilkeson

Chrissy Murderbot

Guest Playlist: Chrissy Murderbot’s top collaborators

Chrissy Murderbot: Women's StudiesChrissy Murderbot: Women’s Studies (Planet Mu, 5/9/11)

Chrissy Murderbot: “Bussin’ Down” (Feat. DJ Spinn)

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/01-chrissy_murderbot-bussin_down_ft._dj_spinn-bnp.mp3|titles=Chrissy Murderbot: “Bussin’ Down” (Feat. DJ Spinn)]

After releasing a number of mixes, EPs, and LPs on his own label, Sleazetone, Chicago-based footwork/juke DJ Chrissy Murderbot (a.k.a. Chris Shively) is set to release his Planet Mu debut this May. The record, titled Women’s Studies, comes on the heels of a whirlwind year in which Shively released a mixtape every week for one full year (www.yearofmixtapes.blogspot.com). Here, he highlights his Women’s Studies collaborators with a collection of 10 choice tracks.

My Collaborators and Why I Love Them
By Chrissy Murderbot

On my new album, Women’s Studies, I work with a lot of guest vocalists, DJs, remixers, etc. A few times already, interviewers have asked me, “How did you find out about these people?” or “What made you choose this particular group of people to work with?” So I thought I’d take this opportunity to show you the songs that turned me onto all the great musicians who’ve contributed to my new LP.

1. Rubi Dan & The Heatwave: “Higher Heights”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/theheatwave-rubidan-higherheights.mp3|titles=Rubi Dan & The Heatwave: “Higher Heights”]

Rubi Dan is a British MC who performs on dancehall records, UK garage records, grime records, and pretty much anything else you give him. This is a dancehall tune from 2008, produced by UK bashment crew The Heatwave. I met the guys from The Heatwave in 2005, and after I heard this tune, I asked them to put me in touch with Rubi Dan. We’ve made two tracks together so far: “New Juke Swing” and “Pelvic Floor,” both of which are on the new album. For the record, I’m really glad I can say I’ve released a tune called “Pelvic Floor.”

Fang Island

Guest Spots: Fang Island on Teenar, Girl Guitar

Fang Island - s/tFang Island: s/t (Sargent House, 2/23/10)

Fang Island: “Sideswiper”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Fang_Island_Sideswiper.mp3|titles=Fang Island: “Sideswiper”]

Fang Island, with its three-guitar attack and lightning-fast riffs, knows a few things about shredding. Logic dictates that it also knows a fair amount about guitars. For guitarist Nicholas Sadler, there’s one axe in particular that stands out: a weirdly human girl-guitar of mysterious origins. In this piece penned for ALARM, Sadler laments the fact that he didn’t conceive of the musical mannequin first and goes on to explain what exactly makes Teenar so magical.

I Wish I Had Thought of This First: Teenar, Girl Guitar
By Nick Andrew Sadler

Teenar, Girl Guitar

My name is Nick Sadler, and though I hate guitar players, I love guitars. This one is a work of mad genius. Here is Teenar, my dream guitar, at what could be a middle-school, father-daughter dance with her pervert-savant creator / daddy,  “Sunset” Lou Reimuller. I am absolutely enamored with Teenar, and I really wish that I had thought of this first.

Teenar is totally baller, outfitted from head to toe in vintage clothing, without arms, ahead of her time with a set of fiery Beavis-legs, and sporting a smart, belly-thru-body guitar that peeks out from behind her bodacious, above-the-knee, low-cut denim skirt. Cute! Teenar, Girl Guitar also has 21 frets on a beautiful blond neck that has been carefully integrated into her never-developing torso, two skin-colored, single-coil pickups that straddle her rock-hard bellybutton, and a fleshy six-string, yummy-tummy bridge, just like the one that my big sis got when she moved out of the house and began dating [Mikey] “Bug” [Cox] from Coal Chamber.

Champagne Champagne

Concert Photos: Champagne Champagne @ Lincoln Hall (Chicago, IL)

Seattle hip-hop trio Champagne Champagne teamed with Portland, Oregon-based indie-rock band Starfucker in a recent show at Lincoln Hall in Chicago. Champagne Champagne, composed of emcees Pearl Dragon and Sir Thomas Gray and multi-instrumentalist DJ Gajamagic (formerly of The Blood Brothers), stormed through a high-energy, punk-rap set culled largely from its self-titled album, released in 2009. Tracks like the twisted love song “Molly Ringwald” showcased the group’s unorthodox production and penchant for pop-culture allusion. ALARM staff member Kyle Gilkeson was there to capture the action.

Champagne Champagne

Grails

Guest Playlist: Grails picks the 11 best songs for OD-ing

Grails: Deep PoliticsGrails: Deep Politics (Temporary Residence, 3/8/11)

Grails: “I Led Three Lives”

[audio:https://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Grails-I-Led-Three-Lives.mp3|titles=Grails: “I Led Three Lives”]

The newest album from Portland, Oregon-based instrumental-rock band Grails, Deep Politics, got a nod in a recent installment of This Week’s Best Albums. Mixing cinematic compositions with worldly sounds and a little ’60s psychedelia, it encapsulates, perhaps better than any of its other releases, what Grails is capable of as a band.

For its guest playlist, Grails made 11 picks based on a new, tongue-in-cheek method of determining a song’s quality.

The 11 Best Songs for OD-ing
by Grails

Emil Amos: At a shitty party some years ago, a man was heard to have said in a drunken defense of the Eagles, “More people have shot up and died to this band than will ever hear ours!”

That man was me. After this rip in the logical fabric of the universe was torn, a new yardstick was introduced to the high-record-collector culture around the concept of “Can you OD to it, though?” And then the inevitable schools of thought naturally followed: “Is it a harsh track to OD to, or more mellow/inviting?”

See what you can get out of these, enjoy yourself, and don’t die!

Tangerine Dream: “Ricochet”