8/10/2010
Michigan This Weekend & 2nd Tuesday is the New 1st Tuesday
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That's a booya! The Drastics will be heading north into the great Northern Open this next weekend and hitting Traverse City (at The Loading Dock) and Billy's in Grand Rapids! This will be our first time in both these cities so we'd love to see you and love for you to spread the word! We'll have Fada Dougou 'pon the mic spitting hotta flame so make sure you wear yer lil asbestos drawers so ya don't get burnt like Kurt Russell!!!!
OH HEY! Ya know what else is cool? You remixing, re-dubbing, re-working and generally mussing up some Drastic riddims. But ... how? By downloading the newest in yet another new Drastics series ... this time of DIY mix-packs (sort of a series within a series .. this month it's sitting in for our belated First Tuesday release) . Up first we have Fidelity which originally appeared on our "Chicago Massive" album. The free-for-download DIY album contains stereo drums, bass, rhythm, and stereo auxiliary sounds ... Just don't go muxin' or melfin' or mylin' around with these tracks now ... jussamussin ... hit up the lil application below or get to our BandCamp page (thedrastics.bandcamp.com) and git'a'downloadin ...
This is by no means a competition, but we'd love to hear what you do with our tunes, so send any of your re-workings to contact@thedrastics.com.
Our new album is also still in production ... we are back on track after a near-studio-meltdown and are getting all our ducks in a row before pulling the trigger on this one. Best be ready those cause this is gonna be 10 solid shots to the dome kid .. with some very extra-special guests!!
And in super advance warnings, we are going to be traveling EAST the first week of November .. expect to find us in PA, NY, VT and some more of America's classiest states November 2-7.
Oh yeah, AND we're now on the Reverb Nation and can find us at www.reverbnation.com/thedrastics.
4:03am | said Anthony | Live Shows, Michigan, Dub, Reggae, DIY, Fidelity
7/7/2010
The Drastics in Michigan This Weekend!
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Michigonians, Michiganers, Michiganese and Michiganites! We want to see you! But really we want you to see us. Actually, just make sure that you're in the club before you get to the show. And you're gonna wanna make sure that you're still there after you've left. So show up 15 minutes before you leave for the venue and we'll be sure to start playing 38 secon...ds after the music starts. But then again if you stick around after you went home, we'll be sure to be on the road before we leave. Ok, so check it out .. if you're not there after you arrived we'll be sure to wait until BEFORE we get to Kalamazoo to play. Cool?
4:24pm | said Anthony | Live Shows, Michigan, Dub, Reggae
7/5/2010
Dub 'n Naked
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10:01pm | said Anthony | Dub, Naked, BBC, Reggae, Documentary
4/6/2010
Monday Morning & Striped Curtain Dub
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The track might be titled "Monday Morning" but it's getting released on a Tuesday ... cause it's been 30 days and it's time for yet one more installment of our First Tuesday New Music Series! Featuring MC Zulu, this track is built on the Drastics' own "Strikeback! Riddim" (off of our third release "Waiting" .. you can check out the unreleased dub of Strikeback! on the player above .. entitled "Counterstrike!"). "Monday Morning" comes with its own dub and immediately follows on the player .. appropriately titled "Striped Curtain Dub".
8 MINUTES HARD LABOR
DRASTICS LIVE
THIS THURSDAY!
We got conscripted last minute to help out our friends The Pinstripes at The Cobra Lounge .. This Thursday, April 8 .. part of a big night Ska Brewing has going, we'll be playing a 50 minute instrumental set early in the night .. around 10pm or so, but the music continues throughout the night with 2 sets from The Pinstripes ... no cover! Ska Brewing will have 8 taps going as well as limited edition and unreleased cans .. if yer into beer, be sure to check it!
4:17am | said Anthony | First Tuesday, MC Zulu, Dub, Monday Morning
2/1/2010
Ralph 'Soul' Jackson Meets The Drastics In Dub, Part 2
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Well the story remains the same. Read about it here if you missed the first installment of "Ralph Soul Jackson Meets The Drastics In Dub". This time around we have an oldie, "Set Me Free" and a new tune by Mr. Jackson, "Searchin'". Both get the solid dub treatment and are up for your ear's satisfaction on our MySpace page ... move in the right direction ....
This will (sadly) be the last of the Ralph Vs Drastics series .. the other 92 hours of tape we recorded (including an impromptu "Spoon & Saw" improvisation by Mr. Jackson that lasted the better portion of a whole day and a group variation on a Chinese theme by Cecil Taylor) were destroyed by water damage when the studio was attacked by fire ants.
Free To Dub & A Missing Dub
Ralph "Soul" Jackson - Vocals, Hammond Organ; Elliot Ross - Guitar; Chris Merrill - Bass, Percussion; Anthony Abbinanti - Drums, Fender Rhodes, B Sax, Percussion; Tom Riley - T Sax; Andrew Zelm - Trombone; Gerald Bailey - Trumpet.
12:03am | said Anthony | Soul, Dub, Ralph Soul Jackson
1/7/2010
Blue Note Dubs
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Good evening all you bonzai buckaroos out there on the vast parched mesa that is the world wide web. Just here to give a little update. Though there was no notification, we did make our First Tuesday New Music deadline and uploaded a brand new instrumental to the ol' myspace listenin' box! We took McCoy Tyner's ballad "Search For Peace" and put the rocksteady treatment on it.
Originally recorded on Tyner's "The Real McCoy" in 1967, the track featured legends Joe Henderson, Ron Carter and Elvin Jones. The album was his first release on Blue Note Records as well as the first record appearing as a leader after leaving John Coltrane's group. Basically, it's an amazing disc. This our little homage to it's greatness featuring Andrew Zelm on trombone.
You'll also notice we added some tracks to our lil' ol' mp3 player up top. Moved some songs from the myspace player there and added a couple new ones ... so press play already!!!
VAN GELDER DUBS
Live Dub
We also got some cool shows palindromey shows coming up in Chicago on 1.13 and 3.11. First off; next Wednesday we're doing 2 sets as part of the Q4 Wednesday Music Party and then March we'll be throwing down at new-ish Chicago spot; The Whistler (which I'm pretty sure will be their inaugural reggae event). We're also planning a week out to the East Coast in April so keep your eyes on the big board!
3:26am | said Anthony | First Tuesday, Jazz, Dub, Music
12/1/2009
Ralph 'Soul' Jackson Meets The Drastics In Dub, Part 1
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A few years ago we had chance to meet and work with (some of us continually to this day) Northern (Southern?) Soul Legend Ralph "Soul" Jackson. We had opportunity to perform as his backing band on several sold out shows in Chicago at The Hideout and Park West. After being "rediscovered" by East of Eden Soul DJ John Ciba while curating his Birmingham Sound compilation, we got to work on a 5 track EP of new and old Ralph material at the Drastic's resident studio, Dirty North. Included on the list for tracking were new tunes like "Seachin" and "I Love You" as well as some of his obscure and hard-to-find 45 cuts like "Take Me Back" and "Can't Leave Your Love Alone" ...
... for various reasons it never saw the light of day, despite it being near completion when the cord was pulled ...
... Well, in anticipation of the first full-length RSJ album coming out early next year (on Chicago's Rabbit Factory Records) we pulled out the tape, dusted off the magnetic fields and put a hurtin' dub on 2 of the tracks we cut with Mr. "Soul" Jackson back in 2007. No, it's not reggae .. it's soul ... but soul if Muscle Shoals had the same kind of engineers as the Black Ark. Pretty different, but we think you'll dig it ...
Can't Leave The Dub Alone & Woman Pride Dub
Ralph "Soul" Jackson - Vocals, Hammond Organ; Elliot Ross, JD Mark - Guitar; Chris Merrill - Bass; Anthony Abbinanti - Drums, Fender Rhodes, B Sax, Percussion; Tom Riley - T Sax; Andrew Zelm - Trombone; Gerald Bailey - Trumpet.
5:25pm | said Anthony | Soul, Dub, Ralph Soul Jackson
11/19/2009
Third Thursday, Free Mixes, Part 9
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Yes yes ya'll and ya don't stop! To the beat ya'll and ya don't stop. We got the rhythm that'll make ya body rock.
Aight, now that we got that out the way, welcome back, and please to be considered for you prompt consideration ... another Third Thursday, another Mix Tape for ya courtesy of The Blends! This month's collection is titled "Cornucopious" as a sort of early Thanksgiving treat for ya'll good lil pilgrims out there. The tracks are mostly dubs and versions of pretty chilled out reggae joints, in some cases we've included the original and the version for contrast .. but there's no "Mayflower" or "Turkey" themes on any of these tunes ... just hard hittin reggae jams for ya lil cranberry sauce filled earholes!!
Track List
Intro - King Stitt
Rock and Groove - Bunny Wailer
Dub and Groove - Bunny Wailer
Hap Ki Do Version - Augustus Pablo
You Rest On My Mind - Naggo Morris
You Rest On My Mind Dubwise - Bullwackie
Look Out For The Devil Version - Junior Dan
Juggernaut Dub - King Tubby
Third World Shuffle - Mercenarys
Natty Dread A Weh She Want - Tappa Zukie
Rub A Dub A Weh Them Want - Musical Intermidates
Our Man Flint - Lloyd Young and Augustus Pablo
Harvest in the East - Tommy McCook and The Impact Allstars
Heavenly Dub - King Tubby
Dub Along the Shore - Dr. Ring-Ding & Victor Rice
Rasta Locks - Derrick Harriott
Touch A Dub - Phyllis Dillon
One Way Love - Barry Brown
One Way Dub - Scientist
WORTH 23 DOLLARS OF TRINKETS!
3:14am | said Anthony | Third Thursday, The Blends, Cornucopious, Dub, Reggae
8/4/2009
we put sun ra in the echo chamber
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Cosmic
Awareness
like
a
spaceship
from
atlantis
3:29am | said Anthony | Cosmic Pyramids, Dub
7/15/2009
Third Thursday, Free Mixes, Part 5
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Oh yeah! Santa comes early like Christmas in July and a monkey with a gun with an preemptive installment of our Third Thursday Mixtape Series! For those of you who liked our "Drastics Profile Series", we will be bringing those back once the team at DrasticConLabCo returns from the field with the results of our remaining personnel.
So for this month we've dusted off archives once-again and pulled up "Cool Down the Pace" in honor of Chicago's latest heat wave. A tasty chilled out and dubby kind of mix ... perfect for a summer day just cruising or stone cold lampin' on ya stoop. This one comes from back in August of 2008 and was actually done while both my arms were in casts. A sort of "f you" to fate for putting me in that condition, I needed to prove that I could still be productive ... Anyhow , I dug a little deeper for this compilation which features more obscure names like Super 8 Corporation, Junior Moore and Prince Douglas ... Except for a handful, all of the cuts used on this mix are B-Side dubs .. the A-sides used were just too hard to pass up
These files will be linked from a file/share site and I don't know what the restrictions are ... they do limit downloads by number or days ... so if you want it and can't get it, drop us a line ...
Track List
King Of Zion Dub - King Tubby/Brad Osbourne
tubbys Daddy Dub - Roots Radics
Grumbling Dub - The Upsetters
Tribal War Version - Little Roy
23rd Version - Super 8 Corporation
Love Me Little Girl - Jnr Moore
Lippy - The Crystalites
Jah Peoples Dub - Linval Thompson
Wa Di Is Free - Scientist
Human Nature Version - Jr. Reid
Jah Jah See Them Come Version - Culture
Shango - The Revolutionaires
Sunshine Dub - Prince Douglas
Roots of Africa - Tommy McCook
Prophesy - Horace Andy
Lovelight Crucial Version - The Tamlins
Killa Dub - King Tubby
Serious Time Version - The Heptones and Lee Perry Allstars
SMOKE EM IF YOU GOT EM
12:24pm | said Anthony | Dub, Third Thursday, The Blends
and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ... and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ... and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ... and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ... and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ... and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ... and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ... and i find, the drastics be the ill funk freakers ...