The Wu Tang show sold out...that leaves a hole to be filled

I am so crestfallen that the Wu Tang show sold out. I had a feeling that I waited too long to look for tickets this weekend; the floor seats and even all of the balcony seats were taken.

This doesn't mean I'm giving up. I'll be checking on craigslist until the day of the show for any loose tickets.

That leaves a hole to be filled in the shows that I'm going to. I just found out that The Sword, the band that opened for Metallica on the tour for their latest album, is playing on Tremont St. in Boston on Sunday with Karma to Burn, a pretty solid stoner/hard rock band.

And I'll be trying to get to the Disco Biscuits show in January once tickets go on sale.

This is a song by The Sword, featuring howls from my spirit animal, which a Facebook quiz even made official.

Mass. MC/Producer combo bring it back to 1982

Termanology and Statik Selektah, both from Lawrence, MA, released 1982 on 10/22. This track, "Goin' Back," features nice verses from Cassidy and Xzibit and no chorus. It's garnered a good amount of attention for the duo's first official album together, getting airplay on JAMN 94.5 lately.

Termanology first gained himself national attention with his 2006 track "Watch How It Go Down," produced by DJ Premier, which landed him in XXL magazine's "Show & Prove" column, after already being featured in The Source magazine's "Unsigned Hype" column in 2005.

Statik Selektah is a producer who has worked with MC's like Nas, Royce Da 5'9, Mobb Deep, Freddie Gibbs, and KRS-One. His album 100 Proof: The Hangover that came out this year reached number 37 on Billboard's Heatseeker Albums chart.

1982 isn't really a retro sound, the name is just a sign of respect for that famous era of hip-hop. The sound is fresh and the album as a whole seems like something Statik and Term have been waiting a while to finally make happen. This makes them a promising duo, and hopefully they'll keep it coming in the future.

Kno Graveyard f Sheisty Khrist MUSIC VIDEO

The setting is a little gloomy, but it goes with the song, right?

This video for "Graveyard" by Kno off his new album Death is Silent that I reviewed last month came out yesterday. No special effects but it's a perfect fit, focusing on the well-crafted beat and delivery by Kno that has hip-hop fans losing out if he's not on their radar.

Featured on this most hard-hitting track from the album is Sheisty Khrist, who is collaborating with Kno's fellow CunninLynguists member Deacon the Villain for an album to be released 11/30, Niggaz With Latitude.

Dubstep is my cup of tea

Oh, hey.

So if you haven't heard of dubstep yet then now you have, but you'll probably hear about it somewhere else soon, too.

Dubstep is a type of music that is very similar to Drum and Bass, but is largely influenced by the slow dub vibes of reggae music, hence the name. A lot of reggae-rock bands do dub remixes of some of their songs, which slows down the tempo, focuses in on the rhythm, and usually repeats some parts to create an atmosphere.

Originating in England, dubstep appeals to most fans of house music and techno because of the heavy focus on rhythm. It's made using studio equipment, and can even be done by amateurs using computer programs. I'm not familiar with many original dubstep artists, I've heard mostly dubstep remixes of songs, which can be pretty good. The notorious Wu Tang Clan acknowledged the popularity of dubstep earlier this year by releasing Wu Tang Meets the Indie Culture Vol. 2: Enter the Dubstep, full of dubstep remixes of hit Wu Tang joints.

Almost any song you want to find a dubstep remix of can be found on YouTube. On my birthday last week, a friend that I got into dubstep posted a "Happy Birthday" dubstep remix to my Facebook wall and that definitely made the day.

A few days before that, we went on a dubstep excursion, starting with wondering if the music from the Home Alone movie has a dubstep remix, and of course it does. We went on to find everything from James Bond to Power Rangers to Rocko's Modern Life dubstep remixes.

So to commemorate the birthplace of dubstep, here's a remix of "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones.

Registering for classes at midnight tomorrow and still can't miss this show

The Expendables put together one well-balanced show for tomorrow night as their fall tour comes into Boston.

It will have all of the genres that I listed above, with The Expendables being a combination of rock/reggae/punk/ska, not quite sounding like any one else with similar influences. C-Money, the trumpet and keyboard player for Slightly Stoopid and former member of reggae group John Brown's Body, will be performing his solo music that he classifies as alternative hip-hop, which has a reggae/dub tinge to it. The Flatliners will bring the more hard-nosed stuff; they're a punk/ska band from Canada with maybe a little reggae involved, but the guitar is too fast to be able to tell right away.

I saw The Expendables last winter at the same club in Boston, The Paradise, and was not disappointed. Passafire and Iration, bands that are mostly reggae-rock, opened for them and it was a very chill show. The Expendables opened for 311 on their 2009 summer tour, and I got to see them twice because they were the only band that played before the power went out at the Comcast Center and the show had to be rescheduled. Both times they closed with the song "Sacrifice."

That being said, The Expendables are a band that you would definitely like if you're into more well-known bands like 311 and Slightly Stoopid. They're signed to Slightly Stoopid's label, Stoopid Records, both being from California. Not only will C-Money play tomorrow, but other members of Slightly Stoopid will perform for his other live instruments, which there are more of than you would expect for something classified as "hip-hop." There's not much officially released stuff out there by C-Money, but he does perform a lot of live shows, like at the 2009 San Diego Music Awards.

The Flatliners are influential in the punk scene in Ontario, and have toured with The Expendables before. They released their first official album, Destroy to Create, in 2005, and their third, Cavalcade, this year on Fat Wreck Chords.

This is "Do or Die" from their 2005 album.

Rugged Man coming to Plymouth next month (thanks Moakley)

This is a video R.A. the Rugged Man made for his legendary verse, which is based on what his father experienced in Vietnam, on the Jedi Mind Tricks track "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story." This is probably Jedi's most well-known song, mostly because of R.A.'s ridiculous, fast flow and poignant lyrics.

As I found out by reading a small info card that I picked up off the help desk while I was walking out of Moakley today, R.A. will be doing a show in Plymouth, MA, on December 10.

R.A. is the same rapper featured in the video I posted last week in my review of Celph Titled's new album, and I'm pumped that he's doing a local show next month. The show will feature local rap groups Outland Camp and Weird Die Young, and will take place at The Guru Room on Main Street, which I've never been to. I'm definitely trying to get myself to this show, but I still don't have my Wu Tang tickets, which is top priority.

Hailing from Long Island, New York, R.A. has been rapping since the early '90s. Although his rap is truely underground, calling himself well-known for being unknown in one of his tracks, R.A. has worked with rappers ranging from The Notorious B.I.G. to Mobb Deep, and has been on tracks done by producers such as Alchemist and Snowgoons.

Jive Records signed R.A. when he was 18, but in the early 2000s he went independent, eventually releasing two albums. Die, Rugged Man, Die was released in 2004, promoted with the single "Chains" featuring Killah Priest and Wu Tang member Masta Killa. Legendary Classics Vol. 1 is a collection of rare and unreleased tracks, as well as previous collaborations including "Uncommon Valor," that came out in 2009. It puts together all of the tracks that were the main body of R.A.'s career to that point, which gained him unending respect from his peers. "Who's Dat Guy" is a song where he describes himself, trading verses with Havoc of Mobb Deep.

A new album is expected from R..A. in 2011, yet to be named.

Wu Tang unifying for US tour and coming through Boston

The world-famous, notorious Wu Tang Clan is setting recent disagreements aside and coming together to tour the United States, doing a show in Boston on December 22 with all eight members.

There have been rumors about an album being released to complement the tour, but it's not likely that no details would have leaked about it by now.  The latest news of definite new material coming out is Ghostface Killah's Apollo Kids on December 14 and a solo album from Raekwon, Shaolin Vs. Wu Tang, coming out next year.  Wu Tang hasn't released an album with the full clan since 8 Diagrams in 2007.  They have, though, released other solo albums featuring fellow members, as well as a compilation album and a group-album done by three members.

Raekwon's fourth solo album, Only Built for Cuban Linx Part II..., came out last year.  It's a critically-acclaimed sequel to his debut album that had stand-out tracks like "House of Flying Daggers" featuring Inspectah Deck, GZA, Ghostface Killah, and Method Man.

RZA executive-produced a compilation album released in 2009 that had five Wu Tang members.  They worked with other New York rap legends on tracks like "Harbor Masters" featuring AZ, and RZA stepped up to the mic over some of his solid producing on tracks like "Evil Deeds" featuring Ghostface and Havoc of Mobb Deep.

This past March Method Man, Ghostface, and Raekwon came out with Wu Massacre, a true Wu-style album that debuted at #12 on the Billboard chart and got good reviews from major critics like Rolling Stone. It was promoted with four singles including "Our Dreams," with RZA on the boards using a Michael Jackson sample.

The only Wu Tang member I've seen live so far is Raekwon when he came to the Paradise on a tour for his last album, so this is definitely my #1 priority concert right now.  GZA has got to be my favorite rapper out of all of Wu Tang, so I'm pumped to try to see him live, and RZA and Method Man are just over-the-top personalities who are worth seeing in person no matter what.

The show is at the Wilbur Theatre, which I've never been to but I know usually has stand-up comics, so it's probably a small venue and should be an awesome show.



Rest in Peace Old Dirty!