Keep Coming Till the Last Day of Summer: Full Spectrum 2 Video + EP

Posted on August 23, 2012 by zillarocca

We started this florid set-up last summer with the “Full Spectrum” video, filmed on Super 8 film on location in Asbury Park, NJ, funded exclusively by Kickstarter with a gaudy appearance from Has-Lo.This summer, we grabbed Open Mike Eagle while he was on tour in Philly with Random aka MegaRan, threw him in a South Philly backyard where he discovered Yuengling for the first time, and let the chromatic camera roll.

Thus you have the video for “Full Spectrum 2″ featuring Has-Lo & Open Mike Eagle, directed by Curly Castro, Pat Murray, and Dewey Decibel (who drew the title card above and housed the filming in his personal painting workshop). Passion of the Weiss declared it “one of the most joyous clips any of these three have released.”

Artwork by Dr. Quandary

We’ve wrapped up this kaleidoscopic saga with the “Full Spectrum EP”, an easy how-to guide for this tinted rendezvous. Compiling five versions of “Full Spectrum” and the sequel with production from Man Mantis (who just got off tour with Sole), L’Orange of Old Soul fame, and Dr. Quandary (who kept his hand busy with the beats and the artwork above).

Throw in Has-Lo & Open Mike Eagle for the Wrecking Crew vs. Hellfyre Club rap aspect and you’ve got yourself a pretty snappy 5 song situation. You can download it for free at Bandcamp this week only, and then it moves up to the big leagues at iTunes.

MegaRan feat Has-Lo, Zilla Rocca, Open Mike Eagle “Super Move”

Posted on August 23, 2012 by zillarocca

We happened to cut this joint the day before we filmed “Full Spectrum 2″. Produced by the homie DN3 and available on the iTunes release of Random’s new jointage Language Arts Vol. 2. You’ll be hearing Random aka MegaRan on Wu-Tang Pulp….

Crushed the Orange Pylon: “Full Spectrum 2″ (L’Orange Remix)

Posted on March 14, 2012 by zillarocca

Artwork by Dr. Quandary for Memetic Supply Co.

One of my favorite new producers tackles one of your favorite songs“Full Spectrum 2″ (L’Orange Remix) feat Has-Lo & Open Mike Eagle

Hummingbird Science: “Full Spectrum 2″ with Has-Lo & Open Mike Eagle

Posted on January 24, 2012 by zillarocca

Artwork by Dr. Quandary for @memeticsupplyco

Via Passion of the Weiss:

“Bug eyed monsters clutching swooning heroines. Grassy knolls and brazen adventurers. Blue Beatle butterflys. Murder scenes swept with neon green urgency before tops are turned Ron Burgundy. What’s a Golden Gopher to a taxiderm? Zen koans by Zilla Rocca.

Skies stained the color of ash and Tiramisu. Tarnished crowns and lacquered hair. Gold not bronze. Gazebos the color of ginger. Blu Cantrell doppelgangers and blind eyes. Has-Lo, the hard-boiled hallucinator.

Corner cramped, tattoo covered girls, mother of pearl eyed girls, long legged flamingos, mouth leaking magenta, lights no white polar bears, nights over. Open Mike Eagle, sardonic and scoping the albatross. Everything finishes with bass. What? The fuller spectrum.”

Soundcloud

Live Tonight: Open Mike Eagle x Has-Lo x Curly Castro

Posted on October 27, 2011 by zillarocca

: Design by Dr. Quandary for Memetic Supply Co.

Hellfyre Club & Wrecking Crew together again

Speaker Beaters: New Open Mike Eagle and Has-Lo

Posted on June 14, 2011 by zillarocca

Open Mike Eagle is the kind of emcee that can get props from the last brigade of lyrical purveyors who miss Sway & Tech ciphers as well as Aesop Rock, Paul F. Tompkins, and your ex-girlfriend who has a Bachelor’s in liberal arts but will probably just be a manager at Whole Foods forever (that’s good money right there). When you name your last album Unapologetic Art Rap, you’re not exactly posturing for a NahRight post and/or boutique clothing line co-sign. Art Rappers wear cardigans, sucka.

His new album Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes is out today via Alpha Pup. I was lucky enough to hear a few of the tracks back in February when we played with him and Nocando in Phoenix. The above video “Nightmares” really pushes Mike into another direction; shit ain’t all smart phones and old eps of Arrested Development. As he explained in detail at Passion of the Weiss, “every word that comes through me, it was born in a nightmare”. And “Why Pianos Break” with POS has had Curly Castro in a frenzy for almost 13 straight days. Throw some water on him.

Purchase Open Mike Eagle’s Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes here

Back in January, I posted the snippet video for “Cock Diesel”, the first track Has-Lo and I completed under the group moniker 2004 Commodores. Since the release of his devastatingly sharp LP In Case I Don’t Make It, Has has been a machine in the lab. There’s about 14 different cats in 14 bags that I can’t let out yet. Good work begets more good work, and in this day and age of clouds, phones named after Star Wars characters, and the dwindling idea of music with a dollar sign attached to it, it’s more crucial than ever to just make great stuff you’re proud of. Maybe folks will agree and throw you a couple bones, maybe not. But all of the work I’ve been lucky enough to do with Has in the past has led us to where we are now: sitting on a stack of songs and projects that are murder sauce.

I made the beat for “Cock Diesel” back in ’07 and had some demo versions of it recorded at random points, but as Has likes to say, beats end up finding their rightful owners eventually. Has picked it out after hearing it on my beat tape Big Stupid Bangers late last year and ravaged the thing like a punchdrunk matador. After you drop an intensely personal album, the last thing you want to rap about is yourself. “Cock Diesel” and the rest of the 2004 Commodores stuff is just blazing the mic with fly amulets.

Download “Cock Diesel” for free at Mello Music Group’s bandcamp page

A View From Phoenix Part Deux

Posted on March 8, 2011 by zillarocca

When you fly to Phoenix in February, you expect to be greeted with lizards, burritos, and margaritas. Really, anything but the blankets of arctic wind, snow, and soul sucking gloom that typifies the first 60 days of a new year on the East Coast.

When we got to Phoenix last month, we got rain. According to the locals, two days of rain is rarer than a GZA guest appearance. It causes people to panic. The city is not equipped to deal with precipitation on this level. Puddles everywhere. Parking lots become reservoirs. It’s not like walking by Broad and Market where the rastas sell $5 umbrellas on stands next to incense, bootleg tees, and mix CD’s (still). No one has an umbrella in that entire town.

Fortunately, Curly Castro and I once again found comfort in turkey sandwiches at The Main Ingredient, a hip lounge that plays Grand Puba, Pete Rock, Grand Agent, and old Heiro for its dining customers. Back in September, we feasted with Random aka MegaRan and our host Kevin Murphy from So Much Silence. This time we debated the joys and pain of Common (mostly pain) with Nocando and Open Mike Eagle with a side serving of Jeff Weiss, all three Los Angelenos who escaped All-Star Weekend to kick it in land of Jared Dudley for our show at the Hidden House. Below are some pics I took, followed by video from the show. I do wish I shot video of the bar we hit in Scottsdale — first time I ever heard Insane Clown Posse in public.