5 O’Clock Shadowboxers

Music

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Weak Stomach

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Released: Jan 1, 2009

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Weak Stomach
3:45
3,911 plays
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No Resolution
3:56
3,162 plays
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Sharpen Their Teeth
4:23
2,972 plays
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Stay Clean
4:08
2,653 plays
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High Noon
4:28
2,430 plays

Total Plays: 18,097 / Plays Today: 1See All Featured ►

General Info

Genre: Hip Hop / Psychedelic
Location The Moon and Antarctica, US
Profile Views: 54360
Last Login: 7/9/2009
Member Since 3/30/2008
Record Label Unsigned
Bio
..In the days of the post-Civil Rights Era, and even in the 70's and a good portion of the 80's, lines between cultures were drawn in the sand; you were either into R&B and the then-increasingly influential genre of Hip-Hop, or you stuck to rock, metal, and punk. Aside from a few trailblazers, attempts to cross the line have been tepid, and even that is being charitable. The black hole that was the late-90's saw the rise of Rap-Rock, a cauldron pot of both genres' worst ingredients, and nearly destroyed any hope of any artist melding the two with successful results. As the old saying goes, time heals all wounds. Towards the end of this decade, and undoubtedly with the help of the internet, a fresh crop of musicians trailblazed the music scene with a nearly-encyclopedic knowledge of both Hip-Hop and guitar-based music, melding the two with unprecedented vigor and creativity. The world-wide web also brought a new sense of community, connecting like-minded artists with each other, despite the physical distance between them. Both the melding of rap and rock and the community built over the internet is none more apparent than the almost four minutes of "No Resolution," where two important touchtones of the two genres are blended together: the immortal breakbeat for "Impeach the President" (used in several thousand hip-hop songs) and a sample from "Venus In Furs," written and performed by The Velvet Underground, one of rock music's most visionary bands. "No Resolution" is served as the opening salvo from 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers, the group whose principles, lyricist Zilla Rocca and producer Blurry Drones (both of whom are noted music bloggers), live on separate coasts of the United States. Throughout their tandem debut, The Slow Twilight, based around the movie Blast of Silence, the duo sustain a near-psychedelic rap opus which is at equal turns immediate and forward-thinking. Written during what Zilla Rocca describes as "the worst year of [his] life," The Slow Twilight, exposes plenty of skeleton's in the New Jersey-via-Philadelphia-based MC's closet. However, Zilla doesn't only write monologues about exes ("Stay Clean"), comparing hip-hop to a nice young lady who grows up to be a cliched "Girl Gone Wild" ("Dead Queens"), and thoughtful pathos combined with novelistic vignettes ("Sharpen Their Teeth,"), but spits with the fury, cleverness, and lyrical precision of your favorite rapper. As you'd expect from a perpetual Netflix subscriber, Rocca's reference base is peppered with movie titles, actors, and quotes, including-but-not-limited to The Dark Knight, Morgan Freeman, Carlito's Way, and many more, creating a tray of lyrical treats you'll still by trying to figure out after your thirtieth listen. As far as the sonics of the record go, Blurry Drones-- better-known as Douglas Martin, also of the experimental folk-pop project Fresh Cherries from Yakima-- uses his extensive knowledge of indie and guitar-based music to meld rock music (from the likes of Cat Power, The Unicorns, and many more) with dirty hip-hop drums and self-played flourishes from a fairly-wide array of instruments. Drawing from sources far more obscure than many of his peers gives Drones a chance to create a wildly varied approach to his beatmaking, from the sinister piano in "Weak Stomach" and the aggressive guitar riff that drives "Rabbit Season," to the drumless melancholy of "The Slow Twilight Outro." The constant creativity displayed on The Slow Twilight melds forward thinking with a classic approach to hip-hop music in order to make something unmistakably hip-hop, and something that pushes the boundaries of the genre. ..The Slow Twilight is now available ..here...
Members
....Zilla Rocca..: Vocals. ....Blurry Drones..: Production.
Influences
..Wu-Tang Clan. ..Phillip Glass. ..J. Dilla. ..Brian Eno. ..Aesop Rock. ..John Cale. ..MF DOOM. ..Radiohead. ..Tom Waits.
Sounds Like
..Grimy, guttural, sample-based hip-hop, prone to psychedelic freak-outs and incredible lyrical outbursts.