Busdriver 'RoadKillOvercoat' album

Los Angeles-based Busdriver – a genre-busting MC with scope well beyond hip-hop’s traditional limitations – will launch his 2007 tour initiative on January 24th at his hometown’s El Rey Theatre. In celebration of RoadKillOvercoat, his fifth solo album and first for the groundbreaking Anti- label, BD will also perform high profile promotional shows in New York, Chicago and San Francisco in the week leading up to the disc’s January 30th release. He will then resume roadwork when a tour of the South gets underway on February 16th in Jacksonville, FL.

On the heels of his club-banging single “Kill Your Employer (Recreational Paranoia Is The Sport Of Now),” which was released in October, the man born Regan Faquhar upholds his ironclad reputation as a chop maestro and style monster on his adventurous and contagious new disc. And advance reviews of RoadKillOvercoat – which was produced masterfully by L.A.’s own beat champion DJ Nobody (Plug Research, Ubiquity) and multi-instrumentalist/programming whiz, Boom-Bip (Lex) have been epic.

Calling Busdriver “one of underground hip-hop’s most dynamic, if not intriguing, personalities,” Black Book praised the rapper’s efforts on RoadKillOvercoat. “[He] spits his rapid-fire bookworm verses over decidedly difficult space age beats that laugh in the face of mainstream appeal,” the magazine wrote in its Fall 2006 “Guide To Hot Bands”

Elsewhere, Scratch raved “he’s a proud new-era MC” adding, “he’s got plenty of skill and charisma.” And Filter gave RoadKillOvercoat an 84 out of 100, calling Busdriver’s flow “ridiculous, articulate, erudite and blistering” and touting it as “his most palatable work.”

“This is the grassroots, off-kilter, rap intelligentsia… undertow that your friends talk about,” BD says proudly of RKO, which affirms his universal appeal while building off of his recent triumphant, set-mingling tour with rising indie rockers Islands.

No mere overnight success, BD has been wowing unsuspecting audiences with his patented visceral onslaught of rants, rhyming and displaced musical sensibility for more than a decade. Whether sitting-in with unlikely cohorts such as Daedelus, Z-Trip, TTC, Boom-Bip, 2mex etc., or plowing throw his enthralling solo sets, his distinct brand of showmanship has germinated over the course of the past 13 years.

With a depth and stadium-sized bombast that has only been hinted at on earlier independent efforts like 2002’s definitive Temporary Forever, 2003’s The Weather, ‘04’s Cosmic Cleavage and last year’s Fear of a Black Tangent, Busdriver’s all-encompassing wares are evident on RoadKillOvercoat. Be it the 80’s rock-tinged tour-de-force ”Sunshowers”, the aforementioned “Kill Your Employer” or the psychedelic touched “Secret Skin,” BD – who went so far as to tour with indie rockers Islands in early 2006 –is sure to defy any categorizations created by his existing output.

Biography

On the tenuous fringes of what can be deemed ‘rap’ there lies the reviled LA maverick, Busdriver. Who for years has been wowing unsuspecting audiences with his patented visceral onslaught of rants, rhyming and displaced musical sensibility. Whether sitting-in with unlikely cohorts such as; Islands, Daedelus, Z-Trip, TTC, Boom-Bip, 2mex etc., or plowing through his enthralling solo sets, there is a distinct brand of showmanship employed and at least a handful of concert-goers who are maladjusted enough to submit to the shear unadulterated thrill ensued.

Unrelenting touring and the willingness to embrace the transient nature of the road gives way to the title of his 5th solo album and Anti/Epitaph debut, RoadKillOvercoat, arguably BD’s most ambitious yet infectiously catchy effort to date. When asked what has been the personal impact of his modern-day troubadour lifestyle, BD states, “ I lament that I have become a serial-dater ” and that “ even when I’m home and off tour, I find myself loading-in at random venue at 6 o’clock sharp,(and) calling promoters that don’t exist ”.

The more apparent impact is shown in the contents of the new record, which boasts a depth and stadium-sized bombast that has only been hinted at in previous BD releases. Production on the record is masterfully tackled by L.A.’s own beat champion DJ Nobody (Plug Research, Ubiquity) and multi-instrumentalist/programming whiz, Boom-Bip (Lex). The songs themselves seamlessly leap from the inadvertent club-banger, “Kill Your Employer (Recreational Paranoia is the Sport of Now)”, accented with sneering criticisms towards the innocuous left-winger, all the way to the psychedelic onslaught of “Secret Skin” and it’s almost hokey optimism. This time around BD wields the pop song framework, beats it into submission and interjects his skittish sense of the absurd. No song in BD’s catalog displays that more then the 80’s rock-tinged tour-de-force, ”Sunshowers”; which tallies the inconsistencies in the bohemian lifestyle of the art school grad and the sub-par works that it gives way to.

The actualization of BD’s unlikely objectives on this record rely heavily on the music provided by Nobody and Boom-Bip, which can hardly be likened to any garden-variety backpack rap backing tracks (Hey, that rhymed!) that have weighted down the genre year after year. Their sensibilities reach far outside of the cul-de-sac that is underground hip-hop and are more akin to dance music, indie rock, folk and mainstream rap. Their solo efforts reflect this, as respectively they have worked with a who’s who list of indie rock and electronic artist.

Still, BD considers these themes and approaches to be old hat. For the past 13 years he has been toiling away in a crew of extraordinary emcee’s who’ve prided themselves on prodding boundaries and challenging the norm. Coming into the fold of the Project Blowed crew in 1993, BD was groomed early on to be the die-hard stalwart for the post-Freestyle Fellowship/Goodlife aesthetic. Being taken under the wing of LA luminaries such as Aceyalone, Mikah-9, Abstract Rude, Fat Jack, CVE and others, he was looked at as a torchbearer for the unsung heroes of the LA underground hip-hop scene.

His first record, Memoirs of the Elephantman, was self-released and peddled hand-to-hand on CDR’s in 1999. It quickly became a must-have for Cali-rap enthusiasts even though it sold modestly. It wasn’t until his second official title in 2002, Temporary Forever, that he garnered some nationwide attention and began carving his niche as a noteworthy freestyler and zany rap phenom. He received glowing reviews and write-ups in prestigious publications such as: The Village Voice, The Wire, LA Weekly, and URB etc. The stand out track alone, ‘Imaginary Places’, is heralded to this day as being one of the most fully realized testaments to BD’s untethered talent. The song is based around BD’s dizzying vocal dexterity as he shadows a staccato flute riff playing a rendition of one of Bach’s classical standards.

The acclaim from his seminal sophomore release landed him a series of deals with the genre-blurring, tastemaker label Mush (US) and the underground hip-hop branch of Ninja Tune, Big Dada (UK). The Weather (Mush), in 2003, was the gallantly unclassifiable collaboration between fellow LA beatnik rambler Radioinactive and producer Daedelus, who is fawned over by IDM nerds and reclusive music pundits alike. This lead to the Daddy Kev produced Cosmic Cleavage (Big Dada) in 2004, which touched on BD’s qualms with heartbreak and the in’s and out’s of courting fickle, cutesy 20-somethings.

Only since Fear of a Black Tangent(Mush) in 2005, has BD solidified his place in the pantheon of undie rap do-gooders and indie music in general. The record playfully highlights BD’s disdain for the prematurely plateaued career that he must lug here and fro, yet spares the listener of any bitter self-pity.

But even with the stellar works in his extensive catalog, BD wasn’t satisfied. He needed to find another strata to occupy, and to somehow keep the urgency of his previous work intact. These are the requirements that RoadKillOvercoat exceed. “ I feel as though this last batch of songs has a wider scope. They’re sonically enthralling. To the point where they can be appreciated outside of my suggested audience” says BD when asked to assess his latest effort. The record whole-heartedly embraces its divergent musical directions without patting itself on the back going about it self-consciously.

BD has no desires of cooling his jets either. At this very moment he is most likely booking shows, selling shirts or writing raps for someone else’s album. He’s rapidly becoming a fixture in the US market and a favorite among unlikely groupings of young people. He puts it simply by saying, “This is the grassroots, off-kilter, rap intelligentsia… undertow that your friends talk about”. Say no more.

Do you also would like to share your opinion? If so, please register or login here.

Details

Popular Songs

New Songs

Tracklisting

Busdriver - RoadKillOvercoat