MMJ x SP footage

wow this is BIG - finally, some very high quality footage of MMJ and Shabazz bringin down the greek theatre of berkeley california. after they sort out ish's mic he lets rip his verse from "home" by jake one, and shabazz blacks up the area. everyone was feeling this, and the crowd was immense. courtesy of frontline tv:

poland video interview

post show

new radio interview

yes i am sorry for being awol of late, ishmaelites... i've been sick, but on the way back now. still meaning to write up my evening with shabazz palaces when they came here to copenhagen a couple weeks ago, but for now here's an interview with liverpool student radio which is pretty cool

Winter 2012-13 Tour Dates

What?!!? Another batch of tour dates?! Yes, the palaceers are birds (royal falcons) who like to fly often and far. By the end of this tour they'll have played around 80 dates in the past year... that's a quarter of the year  on the road. Damn. By now SP has overtaken Digable Planets as the music that Ish has toured the most. 

The tour in the new year is with The Helio Sequence, their labelmates at Sub Pop Records. Ish has been a fan of this duo for ages. In 2003 when the first interview for his then-new Cherrywine project surfaced, one question was what he was listening to. The answer introduced me to 3 great musicians: Miles Davis (I went out and bought Live:Evil), Cody Chessnut (Ish was onto him before he blew up and introduced him to The Roots, resulting in their hit cover of his song The Seed), and The Helio Sequence, who'd recently been signed to Sub Pop. I embed their songs below. Their new LP Negotiations has just come out, and while I prefer their earlier stuff, it's impressive music, impeccably produced, that touches. Ish listens to a lot of this kind of stuff, ('guitar based, electronicish wall-of-sound rock') and plays the guitar so I wonder if he makes this kind of music himself. As he said recently, about 90% of the songs he makes are never released, so (sigh)... but imagine his 'hiphop' take on that sound... pfff forget it! As some wise men once said, Headz aint ready for the shit we got. Headz aint ready, I swear they're not.





11-01 Rejkavik, Iceland - Airwaves Festival *
11-02 Copenhagen, Denmark - Loppen *
11-04 Hamburg, Germany - Kampnagel K2 *
11-05 Kortrijk, Belgium - De Kreun *
11-06 Clermont-Ferrand, France - La Cooperative de Mai *
11-07 Lorient, France - Festival Les Indisciplines *
11-09 Nimes, France - Paloma *
11-10 Fribourg, Switzerland - Fri-Son *
11-11 Zurich, Switzerland - Rote Fabrik *
11-12 Munich, Germany - Hansa 39 *
11-13 Berlin, Germany - Festsaal Kreuzberg *
11-15 Liverpool, England - Kazimier *
11-16 Dublin, Ireland - Twisted Pepper *
12-28 Seattle, WA - Neptune Theatre *
01-18 Birmingham, AL - Bottle Tree ^
01-19 Atlanta, GA - Terminal West ^
01-20 Pensacola, FL - Vinyl Music Hall ^
01-22 St. Augustine, FL - Cafe Eleven ^
01-24 St. Petersburg, FL - State Theater ^
01-25 Orlando, FL - The Social ^
01-26 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder ^
01-27 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel ^
01-28 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge ^
01-29 Louisville, KY - Zanzabar ^
01-30 Saint Louis, MO - Firebird ^
01-31 Bloomington, IN - Bishop Bar ^

02-01 Chicago, IL - The Shrine

* with THEESatisfaction
^ with the Helio Sequence

tour & iceland airwaves show - listen live NOW

Shabazz Palaces & THEESatisfaction European Tour November 2012 kicks off in about one minute from rejkavic, iceland. the entire set is about to be broadcast live on kexp so click here and listen to it. it was supposed to start at 1130 PST (1830 GMT) but appears to be delayed by 30 minutes... but it is literally starting right now so here we go