‘An Unwelcome Guest’ Honorable Mention in Culturebully Top Ten

Guante + Big Cats! ‘An Unwelcome Guest’ received an honorable mention as part of Culturebully’s Top Ten Twin Cities albums of 2009. Link here.

See More Perspective + the Point of View Band at Hip Hop Against Homophobia Vol. 2

After a capacity-bursting show at the Nomad in January, and an inspiring all ages show at District 202 in March, Hip Hop Against Homophobia is coming back to the West Bank, bigger and better than ever. We’ve got a whole new line up of queer and ally MC’s and performers, and proceeds will benefit three hard working organizations. Hip Hop Against Homophobia will bring together the Cities’ queer and hip hop communities for an event that combines our incredible music scene with change making and community building. It’ll go down so smooth, you won’t even know it’s activism.

7pm in the Fireplace Lounge: Open community conversation about hip hop and homophobia, queer hip hop artists, hip hop as social justice, gender in hip hop, queer movements for economic and social justice, whatever we want to talk about. Come set the agenda.

9pm on the Main Stage: Show Featuring:

Tori Fixx
Johnny Dangerous
Lindsey of 2 Flytz Up
Bottom Feeders & EZRA of Death Ray Scientific
See More Perspective and the Point of View Band
Poetic Assassins
DJ Blowtorch

Benefiting: Color CoordiNATION, GLBT Host Home Program, Reclaim

Sponsored by: Culturebully.com, Cypher Coalition, Tru Ruts/Speakeasy Records, MN GLBTA Campus Alliance

Free Download from ‘Start a Fire’ on Culturebully.com

FROM CULTUREBULLY.COM: “Life ain’t short, it’s just a lot of people waste it.” This could simply be coincidental, but it’s fitting that the tracks on Guante and Big Cats!’s Start a Fire EP have been edited and cut down to their most basic, wasting nothing in the process. It’s not that Big Cats!’s beats are any less flowing or robust than normal, or that Guante’s lyrics are any less poignant—the EP simply takes the duo’s abilities and projects them at their most concentrated. One shining example of this is the remix to “One of These Mornings;” the track that the previously mentioned quote comes from. Despite coming in at nearly a minute shorter than the original, nothing feels lost between it and the remix. If anything, the flute-based beat of the remix adds a fresh complexity to the track that allows it freedom while shedding the excess.

Guante has offered up some commentary on the duo’s site for their upcoming full-length release, An Unwelcomed Guest, including these thoughts on the remixed “One of These Mornings”:

The success that the original version of this track had really caught me off guard. The Current picked it up and was playing it every day this past Fall, and everyone was telling me how it was their favorite song on “El Guante’s Haunted Studio Apartment.” I liked it a lot as a recorded track (Eugene, OR producer G-Force put together a beautiful beat), but wanted a more lively, uptempo version to play at shows. Big Cats! delivered. One note about the lyrics: I think a lot of people hear this as a “slice of life” song, a song about me walking around and talking to random people. The song is about DEATH. The sample in the original (and the hook in the remix), “one of these mornings, you’re going to rise up singing,” is referring to the fact that someday you’re going to die. It’s from Porgy and Bess, “Summertime.” Again, I like this song a lot, but the live version with our band is on another level.

In collaboration with Tru Ruts, Culture Bully is proud to present Guante & Big Cats!’s release show for the duo’s new Start a Fire EP. The duo will be joined by Chastity Brown, See More Perspective, the Tribe and Chantz. The show will be at the Nomad World Pub on the West Bank Saturday, May 9 @ 9:00 p.m. Entry is only $5.

Click here for the free download.