tobacco wrote:thanks guys
this is my new baby, so i'm glad it's not out there going to waste!
it's about half of what was on the dvd plus a bunch of newer stuff and some finishing.
whats coming up next!?!?!
ive been pushing this too. i wrote a review of the album in my school newspaper here it is
Tobacco – F**ked Up Friends
If you’re old enough to drink, then there’s a small chance you still remember the armpit of American culture - the 1980’s. You remember grainy VHS and maybe even the awkward daytime television that your grandmother used to watch. 28-year old Tom Fec (AKA Tobacco) remembers the 80’s all too well.
Tobacco is the creative wizard behind the psychedelic, electro-lo-fi experimental pop group, ‘Black Moth Super Rainbow.’ ‘F**ked Up Friends’ is his first official solo album, though it’s unclear how much input any of the members of BMSR ever actually had to begin with.
In 1996, at the age of 16, Fec started messing around on a four track recorder somewhere in a basement in Pennsylvania. Known then as Satanstompingcaterpillars, the music was as rough around the edges as it could possibly get. Try to imagine unintelligible vocals scratching over acoustic guitar plucking and cheesy drum loops. It wasn’t very good. But eventually Tobacco recruited his cousin and his best friend (Power Pill Fist, and Father Hummingbird respectively), and they changed their name to Black Moth Super Rainbow.
Black Moth started as sort of a local legend. No one knew who they were or how they made their sounds. There are myths that say they take all of their old, broken, 70’s synthesizers out into a shack in the woods of PA to record their music, and it shows. The sound of BMSR is categorized by its analog electronic instruments, such as the vocoder, Rhodes Piano, and the Novatron. As of ’03 the band had grown to five members, adding The Seven Fields of Aphelion on keyboards, and Iffernaut on drums, all of whom are trying to remain totally anonymous.
Anonymity wouldn’t last long though, as the band quickly grew to be one of the most talked-about indie groups of the past decade. Opening for the Flaming Lips and having a strong similarity to Boards of Canada (but more fun) earned BMSR a huge fanbase around the world.
‘F**ked Up Friends’ is the latest musical output from Tobacco, and it pretty much sounds just like Black Moth, but with a dark twist. The album was released on October 14th on the experimental hip-hop label ‘Anticon Records.’ The music on ‘F**ked Up Friends’ is much more beat driven, but the synths and vocoder are still in full effect. One song, ‘Dirt’ features guest rapper Aesop Rock on vocals.
As I’m sure you would have guessed by now, all of the songs on the album have ridiculous song titles. The album starts off with ‘Street Trash’ an explosion of vocoder, huge beats and fuzzed-out bass. Right away, you know this is Tobacco, but the lo-fi peacefulness of Black Moth is all but gone.
The standout tracks like ‘Berries that Burn’ and ‘Little Pink Riding Hood’ take the Black Moth sound, amplify it by 10 and remove any shred of innocence BMSR once possessed. However, there are a few tracks that seem to have been included simply to please old Black Moth fans. ‘Side 8 (Big Gums Version)’ is a remix of an old BMSR song from a long out of print EP. Other songs like ‘Hairy Candy,’ ‘Yum Yum Cult,’ ‘Tape Eater,’ and ‘Gross Magik,’ are a welcome additions to the album but don’t do much in terms of differentiating the sound from past Black Moth Super Rainbow. ‘F**ked Up Friends’ is at its best when it is the farthest away from Black Moth. Songs like the aforementioned ‘Dirt Ft. Aesop Rock’ make you wonder how far into the hip-hop realm this project could be pushed.
Fans of Black Moth Super Rainbow are sure to enjoy ‘F**ked Up Friends,’ but might miss the sun-drenched folkiness Tom Fec once produced. If Black Moth is an exaggerated 1960s psychedelic experiment, then ‘F**ked Up Friends’ is its hyper-active younger brother, into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Nintendo. Give this album a listen if you remember making cassette tapes or find Richard Simmons to be insanely terrifying. For more info and free MP3s check out
www.blackmothsuperrainbow.com
