Anti-Apartheid Poetry, DC Shows, Etc.

Welcome back. Been kind of slacking with posting lately so here's a bunch of goodies.

I had this awesome guest lecturer yesterday for my US-Africa Policy course named Dr. Keith Gottschalk. He grew up in South Africa during apartheid and would read his poetry at anti-apartheid rallies. He performed a few for us and I managed to find some more of it here.

For those readers reporting from the DC area, there are some awesome shows coming up.

The Black Cat
Wed Mar 24- THE RUBY SUNS, TORO Y MOI $10 Backstage 9:00
Thu Apr 15- OWEN PALLETT (formerly Final Fantasy) $15 Mainstage 8:00
Fri Apr 23- THE TALLEST MAN ON EARTH, NURSES $12 Mainstage 9:00

Tobacco To Drop Maniac Meat

Above you can see the predictably terrifying album artwork for Tobacco's new album, the similarly predictably titled Maniac Meat. Tobacco is the alias of Tom Fec, a member of the mysterious collective of bubblegum psych weirdos Black Moth Super Rainbow. Tobacco's work expands off the sugary psychedelic synths, vocoder vocals and general lo-fi weirdness that Black Moth Super Rainbow has become known for. But Tobacco's work owes more to hip-hop and dance than anything else the group has done. Tobacco's 2008 debut Fucked Up Friends is one of my favorite albums and is definitely an underrated 2008 gem.

No official tracks are available yet but we do know Beck will be featured on two tracks! Additionally, if you head over The Hairy Cult, which seems like it is run by someone closely affiliated or enamored with all things BMSR, you can find what I presume is some early demos from Maniac Meat. If your a fan of BMSR or Tobacco, definitely check out some of the other posts, the guy has uploaded a bunch of awesome rare tracks, demos and other cool stuff.

In other Black Moth news, I am currently listening to keyboardists The Seven Fields of Aphelion's debut solo album Periphery. Definitely not as compelling as Tobacco's work, but cool nonetheless.

Life Magazine Profiles The Great Liteary Boozers & Drug Addicts

Found this awesome article on boing boing. Having read work by many of the authors mentioned, it provided insight into some of their interesting writing styles. The embedded gallery doesn't list their names but you should know them already! If you don't, click the link at the top of the gallery for the article on Life's website, complete with the author's name, drug(s) of choice and some hilarious quotes. Dig it.