This week Leor Galil profiles local underground rapper Tree, whose mixtape Sunday School really is, as Leor says, “one of the most compelling and underappreciated hip-hop releases of the year.” Tree has a great story, and because I spent some time hanging out with him at the Pitchfork Music Festival, I can attest that the critical success he’s had lately couldn’t be happening to a nicer guy.
This week Gossip Wolf covers a lot of stylistic ground with news about a stoner-friendly cassette comp, local blackened death metal, and a new concert series for fans of Detroit techno, coldwave, and minimal wave. In Rotation includes commercial music producer Morgan Thoryk, audio engineer Zach Goheen, and me; among our current musical obsessions are the new Tame Impala record, Native American DJ crew A Tribe Called Red, and a self-explanatory compilation called Country Funk. There’s a guide to Shannon Brown’s Wood-Star Music Festival, a new fest presented by the Phoenix Suns guard (and native of Maywood, Illinois) that features a bunch of contemporary R&B artists and old-school rappers. And on Soundboard we’ve got show recommendations including Cannibal Corpse, Guardian Alien, Sebadoh, and Yeasayer.