Clap if You Believe

The last few days have been positively fraught with… Well, I don't want to say tragedy. Grievous inconvenience, maybe? Total pains in the ass?

Yeah, that'll do.

The last few days have been positively fraught with total pains in the ass for my music-making allies. First, Death*Star, who had a pretty sweet PAX weekend show lined up in their native Seattle, fell victim to last minute sponsorship complications. And then my brother Adam WarRock and his travelling companion lost their MacBooks in a wholly unexpected automobile break-in.

Of course, being the resourceful lads that they are, both camps have elected to approach their problems in unique and proactive ways. But, much like Tinker Bell, they could still use a little assistance from the audience.

Death*Star have elected to soldier on with the show their-own-bad-selves, haters be damned! If you're gonna be attending this year's Penny Arcade Expo and would like to party with C3, C0s, Bill Beats, Klopfenpop and Mega Ran – and trust me, you do – it would be positively decent of you to pre-order a ticket or three to their El Corazon gig slated for the night of Saturday, September 1st.

Meanwhile, Euge is planning an even more ambitious solution to his own woes. This Friday he will be conducting a 24-Hour Rap-A-Thon. He'll spend a full day writing, recording and producing original material – as much as he possibly can without forethought, preparation or sleep. All he asks in exchange for this hip-hop Iron Man competition is a little donation money. You can contribute a lump sum or pledge a dollar amount per completed track. After the Rap-A-Thon has concluded, Adam will send a signed burned copy of the results (and some other swag) to all his sponsors.

His friend K will be blogging and live-tweeting the whole event for your entertainment, and, should they surpass the $2,000 needed to replace the laptops, any additional monies will be donated to RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.

So there you have it folks. Please help those who help themselves.

Are You Listening?

I won't be so presumptuous as to say I'm a part of the NOFRIENDS clique, but I will admit that there ain't a lot of secrets – musically-speaking, at least – between me and the ThoughtCriminals crew. kHill, for example, let slip a while ago that he and his tourmates were working on a special release wherein they rap over each other's beats. Still, I didn't actually get to hear any of the FUN RAZOR mix until late last week, and… well damn!

Though only a dozen tracks long, this collection is massive in scope. With Adam rapping about digital disconnect, Mikal bringing a heaping helping of southern braggadocio and Jesse D tackling gender identity, it's really all over the place – more so, even, than these already noticeably broad artists are independently. What I'm saying is, despite your tastes, this one warrants your attention.

If the crew can sell just over 200 copies at 10 bones a pop they can totally finance their NOFRIENDS 2012 tour. So give it a listen, and definitely snag a copy if you're feeling it. Which I'm willing to bet you will.