The Drastics with
MC ZULU and
Fada Dougou
at
The Hideout
1354 W Wabansia Ave / Chicago
Friday / December 21
Drastics Set / 10pm
with Low Down Brass Band
Wild Jesus and The Devils Lettuce
THE MEDITATIONS
THE DRASTICS & MC ZULU
DJ CHUCK WREN
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 18 / 8pm
REGGIES
2105 S STATE ST / CHICAGO
MORE INFO HERE
On Your Marx &
Circle City Deacons &
Big Wig Mechanic &
King Tony At The Controls
Spankin' That Backside on
Friday, September 07
Drastics' own King Tony at the controls where dub sounds abound from the man who wheres the crown. From antiquated tape based systems emerge a new hope for riddims trapped in a static state --- given life through a various array of effects and general and inherent positive mental foresight ...
Doors at 9pm
Ace Bar, Chicago
1505 W Fullerton
More Info
Wednesday, August 1
Martyrs', Chicago
3855 N Lincoln Ave
Paa Kow's By All Means
The Drastics
Vertikal
Vertikal brings the funk, Drastics bring the dub and By All Means brings the insanely huge band killin it inna African style. Gonna be a sick show, not to be missed.
More Info via The Book of Face
Check out By All Means killin it on this live set ..
Photo by Matt Kursmark
King Tony
Breaks Down Babylon Inna Dub Conquest
Saturday, July 21
Opening & Selecting Strictly Vinyl In Between Bands
Martyrs', Chicago
3855 N Lincoln Ave
With the Deepest Sounds inna 1/4" plastic tape construct from The Drastics, MC Zulu, Illuminati Congo, The Pinstripes, JahDan, Dr. Ring-Ding, Deal's Gone Bad & Many More ...
Album Release Session For
Drop Steady
Celebrating The Release of 'What You Do!'
and Special Guests
Akasha & On Your Marx
All Night Event Starting at 8pm. $7. Stay Early Come Late.
More Info
Photo by Matt Kursmark
The Drastics' Own
King Tony
Dubs Down The Tonic Room, Chicago
Friday, July 6
Opening & In Between All Bands
With Boss Sounds inna Dub Matrix on Cassette from The Drastics, MC Zulu, The Pinstripes, JahDan, Green Room Rockers, Deal's Gone Bad & Many More ...
With Hosts On You Marx
and Special Guests
Akasha (Chicago, IL)
The Soul Radics (Memphis, TN)
All Night Event Starting at 8pm. $5. Come Early Stay Late.
More Info
Musicians from all over the Chicago's musical map are gathering to celebrate the life and music of Adam Yauch.
The evening will feature performances by Mr. Greenweedz, The Right Now, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, ShowYouSuck, Rita J, The Drastics, Bumpus, Akasha, Dirty MF, Dan Fernandez of Kings Go Forth, Abstract Giants MCs, Any Kind, DJRC, Lowdown Brass Band, with more to be announced! Local designer, Scott Williams (renowned for his work for Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and Soul Summit Chicago), worked with Delicious Design to create a poster that will be available for purchase that night, in addition to a raffle, that will benefit Students For A Free Tibet.
A one-night-only, multimedia extravaganza, “Time For Livin” will feature inspired takes on songs from throughout the Beastie Boys legendary career. From the party anthems of License To Ill, the B-Boy kaleidoscope of Paul’s Boutique, to the exhilarating smash-up of live the funk, hardcore, and hip-hop of Check Your Head, Ill Communication, and beyond.
The event will also celebrate Yauch's wider impact through his humanitarian work to free Tibet, expose underground film with Oscilloscope Laboratories, and popularize the term “mullet” via Grand Royal Magazine, while turning everyone on to the funky jams that fueled the dreams of three emcees from New York City.
Hey YO!
This Thursday the Drastics will be sharing the stage with Cincinnati's finest the Pinstripes!
March 1, 2012
Township, Chicago (2200 N California)
NEVERMIND WHAT DEH POSTER DEM SAY!
We'll be playing strictly instrumentals, and almost all new ones ... So come on out if you wanna hear some fresh music for once in your life!!!
The Drastics feat. MC ZULU
Live at Martyrs' Chicago
Friday / January 13 / 2012
TELL THE FACEBOOK
OVERLORDS YOUR
COMING
Yes ya'll. 'Tis the season and all that. We've been posting our limited arsenal of holiday material on SoundCloud over the past couple of weeks, and just wanted to make sure you knew. Cause we're sure you're not sick of holiday music yet. So please to enjoy! We offered our dub version of 'Winter Wonderland' as a free download last year and we so no reason to not offer it as a bite sized stocking stuffer this year. It's better than coal!
And in non-holiday related news ... 1.5 shows to announce ... !
Friday January 6, 2012
Resident Drastic selectors Chris & Anthony (aka PalmDown Sound) will be back on the 1s & 2s doing it at The Charleston in Bucktown, Chicago. All vinyl, no cover. 9:30 to close. Reggae & International Soul.
Friday January 13, 2012
The Drastics w/ MC Zulu will be at Martyrs headlining with Environmental Encroachment and BS Brass Brand. Ruff inna second line!
OH SNAP!
Almost forgot, we're also gonna be part of this year's WXRT 'Best of 20' Holiday Spectacular .. where you can hear the tunes below paired with our impeccable wit and ability to write 45 seconds skits featuring drunken Santas, bar-fighting holiday characters and what to tell your cabbie on the way home from NYE. This year will be highlights of the past 20 years and we're honored to be part of it. Tune In!
Don't call it a comeback!
LL Cool D(rastics) is what we'll be known as from now on ...
Yeah amigos, it's been a minute since we've rapped at ya, but we're trying to get back wit it and start bringing you that funky dub/reggae you love so much ... Starting with a new website, new mixtape, new video, new shows, new fragrances, new mouse-pad themes, etc and et al ..
Yeah, it's been a minute but we're stoked to announce we got two shows coming up in Chicago over the next two months!
December 17, 2011
Ultra-Lounge, 2169 Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
Featuring MC ZULU pon di mic!
w/ Wild Jesus
January 13, 2012
Martyrs, 3855 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago
Featuring MC ZULU pon di mic!
w/ a whole heap of brass bands
Be lovely to see you lovelies out. That being said, we'll be FINALLY dropping some new material in the near future, for real. We basically got 2 new albums of material recorded but we just been lettin' it marinate for a minute to make sure it got that nice potency we know ya'll have accustomed to!
In the meantime check out all the new tunes in our new EMMPEETHREE player up at the top ... we'll be adding new content to this site over the next week, but we just wanted to get this site going so you knew what was up. So, now that you know what's up, stop actin the fool already!
Yo!
So some of you might not know (but now ya know) that Mad Anthony from The Drastics has been doing live dub off a cassette deck (as inspired by the man Dub Robot) at shows and parties over the later part of this year. We've been taking the plethora of riddims recorded over the years at Drastics HQ (aka Dirty North), dumping it onto that sweet 1/8" of tape and bringing the dub-of-many to the masses. It does sound surprisingly fat.
Well here's a snippet of a brand new Drastics track we recorded this fall given the ol' live dub treatment. Dumb Hole (A Sonic Black Hole) features Chris (bass), Anthony (drums, keys) & Luke (guitar) on a hard mixdown mixed with sweet 80s reggae fashion. Literally though, fashion.
SO PEEP IT ALREADY
Every FIRST FRIDAY.
All Vinyl & Live Cassette Dub being broadcast from the Impala Gallery...
featuring resident selectas ...
RUFFY + TUFFY ... ruffest inna di yard
RAD BRIAN ... heavy heavy sounds
DALY BREAD ... all you need
NIC the GRADUATE ... the deepest stacks
KING TONY ... on the dub machine
byob. don't bring jerks.
Check It
Missed you last month. We really did. What? No I tried calling! But, my phone was dead! I was stolen by gypsies! My arm was broken! I was attacked by feral weasels! Aw baby don't be like that ... but but but but baby, don't you understand that I do the things I do because I LOVE YOU????
Anyway ... spent last month gettting geared up for our first Sound Craft All Night Dub Session and didn't have the wherewithall to get a mix together. With next month's Sound Craft Series 2 rapidly approaching (August 5) we put together a hardass dubwise mixtape for ya'lls little boiled cauliflower ears.
Definitely some rareities in this pile of chune but familiar names and melodies abound as well. ABOUND.
And hey! If this doesn't satiate your depraved musical needs, your PalmDown Sound Crew will be back at The Charleston on Saturday July 30th with extra special guest DJ Tropicaza form Mexico City in the house. Reggae vs Latin Funk. The gloves will be off. All Vinyl. No Cover. Good Drinks.
DUB WILL FIND A WAY
Playlist
Martin Luther King - Scientist w/ The Forces of Music
Firehouse Special - Prince Jammy
Peaceful Man Dub - Rockers All Stars
March Down Babylon Dub - Prince Douglas
In Those Days - Burning Spear
Galong So Dub - Bunny Wailer
Mr. Walker Dub - King Tubby
Wicked Dub - The Revolutionaires
Iron Bar Dub - Linton Kwelsi Johnson
Idlers Rest - Joe Gibbs & The Professionals
None A Jah Jah Children No Cry - Ras Michael
Fun & Games - Lee 'Scratch' Perry
Round 9 - Scientist w/ Roots Radics
Even if you don't live in Rogers Park, this will be worth the trip!
6 Selectors. Strictly Dubwise. Strictly Analogue. 'Til 4am. BYO but don't bring jerks.
Anthony from The Drastics will be dubbing live off 4-track cassette chocked full of riddims from The Drastics, Deals Gone Bad, The Pinstripes, Illuminati Congo, The Prizefighters, MC Zulu and more!
Finally!
Here it is! A new single for ya'lls! We know it's been a while, but we've been on the road and working on this new album, and this applebutter ain't gonna churn itself! A new hard-hitting, dark and heavy rocksteady jam! There is an ulterior motive however ... This track is our entry into a remix competition featuring Drastics' mainstay vocalist MC Zulu.
The original track was laced up by the man called Dub Gabriel and is a spicy little dancehall/dubstep-ish riddim ... well, just like The Skatalites took the music from the movie and put it to the ska, Your Drastics took the music from the dancehall and put it to the rocksteady.
And bump it regularly!!
MC Zulu: Vocals
Andrew Zelm: Trombone
Gerald Bailey: Trumpet
Chris Merrill: Bass
Luke MacRoberts: Guitar
Anthony Abbinanti: Drums, Melodica, Baritone Sax, Juno 60, Fender Rhodes, Bells, Percussion
Production, Dub & Horn Arrangements: A. Abbinanti
Recorded at Dirty North, Chicago
Everyone's dubbing on film these days!
Dubbing the Pinstripes in The Drastic's Lab aka Dirty North
Brian Wallace aka Dub Robot dropping Science
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.
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?
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!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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
