Mush Records Tour Thur May 15
Meow Meow
"I cater to the nerves of wordsmiths/ I'm here to preserve the weird and absurd in cowshit," blurts Radioinactive on "Name Forgetter," one of 15 bizarre tracks on The Weather. This line sums up the Mush Records aesthetic: Mush never stands still artistically or geographically, and weirdness is its lifeblood. The company recently moved to Los Angeles, entering the vortex of a vigorous indie hiphop scene led by unconventional crews like Project Blowed and the Shapeshifters. Fueled by copious quantities of Red Bull and their entertaining bullshit, Andre Afram Asmar, AWOL One, and the Weather (MCs Busdriver and Radioinactive) bring their Mush Records multimedia mindfuck to the backpacker masses on this current 45-day tour.
The Weather is the epitome of eccentricity. The incorrigible brainchild of Busdriver, Radioinactive, and Daedelusm The Weather eschews nearly every hiphop convention--except rhyming. And when Busdriver and Radioinactive rhyme, they do so either at a stenographer's-nightmare velocity or in an oblong, singsongy way that'll have you simultaneously shaking and scratching your head. The African American Busdriver sounds like he's parodying white TV announcer Don Pardo as he freestyles Exquisite Corpse sentences, while Radio waxes absurd like a West Coast Paul Barman on mushrooms. You're more likely to laugh your ass off than to dance it off, as the duo tailor their tongue-twisting verbalisms to ride Daedelus' zany sonic roller coasters.
Unfortunately, Daedelus won't be joining the Weather on this tour, but his image will appear on the screen behind them. "We have a digital projector, so we're able to incorporate Daedelus into the show," says Radio. "We have Asmar doing the music with a combination of computer, live-time effects, and turntables. He's definitely enhancing The Weather material by adding his dub underwater spatialness [sic]."
On their current tour, playing to small audiences in places like Lubbock and Albuquerque has its ups and downs, the Mush artists agree, but overall, it's been a blast.
"Everyday, something funny happens," Busdriver says. "That's the best part of the tour. I get to hang out with people I admire, and random shit happens that's not supposed to, but it makes sense. And that's kind of in character with [our] music. It all makes sense in a nonsensical way. In Orlando, Florida, we had a deaf person come to the show. He liked the vibrations, but he couldn't really hear. We have people like that at our shows."
