Tobacco, Beans and Shapers are slated to perform live at Holocene on Saturday, April 23. An onslaught of beats, bangs and bleeps will be delivered to your sonic senses as you dance yourself loose. Tobacco will almost certainly deliver a performance that will cause your lungs to explode with sheer delight.
Better known as Thomas Fec to his mom and pops, Tobacco got its start in the little known group Allegheny White Fish, which would later perform under the name Satanstompingcatepillars and ultimately become Black Moth Super Rainbow. The group went on to dominate the indie electronica scene of Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. “Falling Through a Field,” released in 2003, was the first full length under the BMSR moniker.
While Tobacco generally tours with BMSR bandmate “The Seven Fields of Aphelion” and a local Portland drummer, this tour has featured an extra synth player and the drummer of Shapers pulling double duty. Previous shows on the current tour have been accented with a live visual show featuring projections from both “Fucked Up Friends” DVD releases, bizarre “alien” porn scenes and other weirdo imagery that is sure to shock and awe you.
Tobacco’s solo career kicked off with its 2008 debut “Fucked Up Friends.” A much edgier sound than the previously recorded Black Moth albums, “Fucked Up Friends” earns its audible praise through the use of more analog synths and tons of tape delays. Highlights include the closing track “Grease Wizard” and “Dirt,” featuring Aesop Rock who lends his complex, harsh-voiced, art-rap style to the zippy and whirling track.
The release of “Maniac Meat” in 2010 was a much-awaited follow up. Gritty drums and dirty, vocoded voice lines give the record an overall classic analog feel—pitch bends, filters and distortion guide the album to instant success. A guest rap appearance by Beck on the track “Fresh Hex” gives the listener a lot to decipher with witty wordplay and an at-times sandy synth line that elicits shaky arm motions. Pitchfork Media called it the “feel-weird hit of the summer” in a most-auspicious review.
Beans, a native New Yorker from White Plains, is lauded not only as an “accomplished abstract poet” but also as an “early architect of electronic-infused landscapes.” As one of the founding members of Anti-Pop Consortium, Beans is no stranger to innovation. Beans was forbidden to travel into the city by his mother, but cousins from the Bronx would deliver him mix tapes, cassettes and vinyl that would fuel his exploration into the rap world. He would eventually get into rhyming, as it required little-to-no equipment outside of pens and paper. Initially attending college for fine art, he would shine his rap skills during the Rap Meets Poetry Series in SoHo, New York City. Check out his debut release, “Tomorrow Right Now” for an introduction to his experimental rap stylings.
Shapers are a quartet from Chicago who easily lace ambient sounds with beats, indie rock vocals and mellow good times. Their debut album “Little, Big” just went on sale via the internet and will no doubt be available while they tour. Midway through this tour they stopped by The Horseshack of Rock Island, Ill., to record a few tracks for the Daytrotter Sessions (a completely open format where touring musicians can record a session to share with the world, commonly done while on tour). Daytrotter.com described the track “Virginia Reel” as a “month’s worth of 911 emergency call sirens, all of the city’s ambulances and police cruisers blaring away.” Signed to Two Thumbs Down Records in Chicago, they’ll definitely be a group to watch heavily in 2011.
Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets for $13 in advance or $15 at the door on day of show. ?