September 29th, 2011

BACKBURNER: Go Deeper Into Music with Herohill.com



Thanks to our fine friends over at Herohill.com for their in depth profile of Backburner’s Heatwave with their feature Deeper Into Music. Actually, the “in depth” part is courtesy of Teenburger (Ghettosocks & Timbuktu) who breakdown the Backburner album track by track. Example? How ’bout what they had to say for track number one…

“Straight out the Vault”
Ghettosocks – I remember when they played this Dexter Doolittle beat in the Vault. Half the squad went nuts and headed downstairs to start writing and half stayed to work on something else. I thought the build up was hype, and Jesse definitely championed this beat. I think you get that impression from his monster howl right at the beginning. I’m not really on this joint so I can’t really speak on it too much. Fester killed the cuts, and Ambition rocked it.
Timbuktu – Yeah, Burgie and I jokingly call this track “Jesse D’s Muppet Show” because of the howl. I really love this track and think it’s a good example of a Dexter Doolittle beat. It’s also one of the two songs on the record that Dex mixed. I believe Jesse, Choke and Ambition threw down on the spot and Bizzy’s raps and Fes’ cuts were added later.

Check out the rest of the article here: http://www.herohill.com/2011/09/deeper-into-music-backburner-heatwave.htm

September 22nd, 2011

ANGERVILLE: **New** “Highway of Life” video & CD review



Thanks to Cheryl Thompson for her review of Angerville’s new album Warfare for music site SoulMatters.com. Here it is in all it’s glory:



Read the review here: http://www.soulmattersmag.com

And for the official 2nd single (and 3rd video) from Warfare, Fortunato teams with gambling man and KOTD co-host Bishop Brigante for “Highway of Life”. The video was also directed by Bishop and filmed and edited by Frameblender Productions. The song was produced by Graphic.

Hear the rest of the album on Bandcamp, where the album is available for download for only $5.

September 7th, 2011

FINALLY… FAN EXPO 2011

Yeah, Fan Expo 2011 was last weekend, but updates have been hard to get to when also gearing up for the wild Heatwave release party (see earlier news posts for some footage from the show). It’s old news now, but here are a few photos taken around the Hand’Solo table in Artist’s Alley. Oh yeah, we went through approximately 100 Grandpa Funnybook mixtapes and made many new friends. Thanks for asking!

The Hand’Solo table all decked out…


The kind of guy we like hanging around the table, especially when he’s blasting Wordburglar’s “S’Up Burg” from his Stormtrooper regulation space boom box…


Another great Stormtrooper costume, this one with Jawa child in tow…


And since a picture is worth a thousand words, Fan Expo 2011 was…


(hint: It’s Kick-Ass!)

September 7th, 2011

BACKBURNER: Awesome reviews galore!

Heatwave has been out for a little less than a week but the reviews have been coming in pretty fast, and they’ve been really rather good. Thank you to all of our friends and fans writing nice things about the crew and the album. Your honest - and kind - words are always appreciated. Of course the first one to hit the net was the Exclaim review (found a few posts earlier), but these other four reviews are equally as pleasing to the eyes:



Writing for website 411Mania.com, Micheal Ornelas gave Heatwave a near perfect 9.9/10, but ultimately he describes the album as:

“The bottom line is that some of the best rappers (with whom you’re likely unfamiliar) came together and created an album so dense with great lyrics and rhymes that you’ll discover something new every time you hear a song.”

Read the rest of the review here: http://www.411mania.com/music/album_reviews/200381


Dan Gorman was excited to get a review of Heatwave up on the website for Two Way Monologues, sister event to $5 Rap Show at Rancho Relexo, and aside from comparing it to Jurassic 5’s Quality Control, he also had other nice things to say about the album, too, such as:

“Here’s a bucket full of MCs and DJs who are all stacked with talent coming together to create a crazily enjoyable rap record.”

Read the rest of the review here: http://twowaymonologues.com/2011/09/01/backburner-crew-spit-fire-on-heatwave/



And Heatwave is also enjoying a fair share of positive reviews from the Nerdcore community. Over at Nercore.co, Wyrfxrssn calls Heatwave “an instant classic” and rates it 9/10. He further adds:

“So little is wrong with this album that something huge must be wrong with someone who doesn’t enjoy it. Each member brings a unique style…”

Read the rest of the review here: http://nerdcore.co/content.php?135-review-backburner-heatwave



And finally, but actually, really the second review to see the light of day, Roundtable Reviewers Kaiju, Kincade and XoC provide a detailed, track-by-track review, but it’s Kaiju who sums it up best when he says:

“Everyone needs to cop this album.”

How true! Read the rest of the review here: http://www.nerdcorenow.com/vb/threads/23484-Review-Roundtable-Backburner-Heatwave

Thanks to everyone who has contributed a review to Heatwave so far. And please, keep ‘em coming…

September 5th, 2011

BACKBURNER: live video from the Heatwave release party

Backburner was on tour this weekend in support of the release of their new album, Heatwave. It all started at $5 Rap Show at Rancho Relaxo in Toronto on September 1st. The played 11 of the 14 songs on the album, all done live for the first time ever. With some members unable to make it to Toronto for the show, you now get interesting alternate versions with Ghettosocks and Mister E subbed in. Here are a couple of my favourites, but you can check the full show at:

http://www.youtube.com/5DollarRapShow

Lifers - Chokeules, More Or Les, Timbuktu & Wordburglar

Heatwave - Thesis Sahib, Timbuktu, Wordburglar, Jesse Dangerously, Chokeules & Ghettosocks