The Illustrated Man

I dig tribute tracks. I'm not sure what that says about me – I dunno, maybe I'm just morbid – but I do.

Yesterday, tellingly enough during a rare astronomical event, literature lost one of its true visionaries, Ray Bradbury. At 91 it's tough to think he didn't have a good run, but it's a loss that resonates with all who enjoy the written word. Whether your thing is fantasy or horror or sci-fi (and whether or not you ever experienced the exquisite language of the man himself), Bradbury shaped the landscape of what I colloquially refer to as geek lit.

Cats like Stephen King and Neil Gaiman quickly had their say regarding Ray's death and the very real impact his work had on their own, and my buddy Eugene weighed in as well via a track called "F.451."

A dystopian dirge has never sounded so sweet.

"We've got too many internets." – Ray Bradbury

The Trickster

A couple of weeks back OG Don Vito hit me up with an unexpected email. It turns out that prior to his unfortunate passing, Josh "MC Gigahertz" Montgomery had been working with Vito on a new release.

In the aftermath of Josh's death, Don Vito combed through his production files and finished the project himself, an act that was both a fitting tribute to a fallen comrade and, I'd imagine, a difficult but cathartic experience. It now stands as what may be the first of several posthumous Gigahertz efforts, The Shapeshifter EP.

Its 6 songs are supplemented by literally dozens of pages of liner notes, the bulk of it email exchanges between the two artists. But if these candid notes are a time capsule of 4 months of fierce creativity in 2010, then the songs themselves are oddly colored by Josh's apparent suicide earlier this year. Even tracks like its standout closer, "Summertime is Over," now seem oddly poignant.

OG Don Vito has made the EP freely available, and anyone interested in exploring the more introspective side of the Clown Prince of Absurdcore is encouraged to give it a listen.

There's More to Me Than You'll Ever Know

You know what? Tomorrow we'll talk about their punk rock roots, their early frat boy-style misogyny and their own odd flavor of political activism. We'll explore the ripple effect that License to Ill had on hip-hop in general, and its lingering appeal particularly to the white suburban audience. We'll dissect that shit. We'll really get our fuckin' hands dirty, you know?

Right now let's just mourn MCA. He will be forever missed.