Photo credit: Scott Stewart

Yep, tomorrow marks the release of the new Bad Rabbits album.  Hard to believe it’s been almost four years since this Boston-based crew dropped the Stick Up Kids EP and then hit the road hard.  As the Boston Globe notes:  “In that time they’ve found their way onto the stage with everyone from Mos Def and Wu-Tang Clan to the Deftones, so at this point in the game, it almost feels like a formality to finally usher in the finished product.”

So, tomorrow, it’ll be, as P.O.S. says, “in ya iTunes/out ya mouth”.  In the meantime, check out the video “Can’t Fool Me” for a taste of what’s in store:

Additional link:

• Bad Rabbits official
• Bad Rabbits on Facebook

On the song “Warrior Bones,” Tamar-Kali closes with the telling lines: “These warrior bones ache for revolution, but the people ain’t ready.”

So it seems that Janelle Monae’s solution is to be a time-traveling rebel from the future so that she can impact and change the present.  Smart, right?  After all, history is filled with artists who weren’t fully understood or appreciated in their own time.  Painter Vincent Van Gogh, Arthur Lee & Love, and Detroit punk rockers Death, to name a few.  And the video is also a subtle exercise in manifestation.  By that, I mean, Janelle projects a future in which she and Wondaland are such infamous subversives they have to be imprisoned.  Check the voice over in the beginning where it talks about Project Q.U.E.E.N. as a “musical weapons” program that was so dangerous it’s still not understood the video’s dystopian future.  In fact, authorities are still “hunting the various freedom movements that Wondaland disguised as songs, emotion pictures and works of art.”

Yeah, bravo, Janelle.  We’re glad you’re back.  And we’re pulling for you to have that much impact in the world today.

Rapping, singing and live instrumentals? You might be tempted to call Oxymorrons a hip hop group. Or a rock group. What they are are two talented brothers from Queens.  Some of you might remember that we first saw these guys at the 2012 Afropunk Festival.  As we wrote then: “And a shoutout to The Oxymorrons, the Queens duo of brothers K.I. and D.  Great flow, songs and incredible energy.”

Great to see two guys coming at the music scene with inspiring, heartfelt, and honest music.  Case in point is their latest video, which was written to honor a friend who committed suicide.  (Side note: Suicide is a serious problem. For youth ages 10-24, there are over 4,600 suicides every year. Additionally, there are 157,000 reported injuries from attempted suicides.)

The new project from Oxymorrons, 4 Fun & Games, is expected to be out this summer.

Additional links:

• Oxymorrons official

“Gotta testify /’cause the booty don’t lie.”  This’ll probably show up on t-shirts soon.  So, here it is, fam.  Whatch’all think?

 Additional link:

• Janelle Monae official

photo credit: Nick Antony Photography LLC

That’s right! A Bold As Love exclusive!  We’re proud to premiere the new video that kicks off the Love Machine Project, a collaboration between expressive, left-of-soul singer Candice Anitra and consciousness-raising LA MC Mustafa Effortless.  What’s the project about, you ask?  According to the release materials, the video and song for the project’s first single “honors and extols what it means to be human, embrace the alien, and spread love along the way.”  They say they’re going for “Tina Turner meets Guru”.

In her solo career, Philly-raised and Brooklyn-based Candice Anitra explores the fine lines between genders, self-love and loathing, and the polarities that exist in us all. She is one part soul singer, and equal parts rabble-rouser and philosopher, with her edgy, electro-rock-infused, sultry songs.

Mustafa “Effortless” Shakir has his hands in everything from acting to writing to directing. As an emcee, Mustafa bridges the gap between conscious rap and ear-to-the-street swagger.

The two met more than a decade ago when they both performed in Kamal Sinclair’s Off-Broadway The Beat, called “Hip-Hop’s theatrical revolution.”

Stay tuned for the  full Love Machine Project release in June.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Shout out to Fiona Bloom and The Bloom Effect for connecting the magazine to this project!

Additional link:

• The Love Machine Project official
• Candice Anitra official
• Mustafa Effortless on FB

Janelle and team are killing it with the GIFs. Just plain smart marketing.

So you may have heard (or not) that Janelle’s follow-up the The ArchAndroid is called The Electric Lady.  No release date yet.  However–and this is exciting–the first single is called “Q.U.E.E.N.”, will feature Erykah Badu and it drops tomorrow, April 22!  Check the announcement:

Finally, if you haven’t seen it, check out Janelle on the cover of this month’s Essence Magazine, along with an full feature interview:

Additional link:

• Janelle Monae official

Guest Post by Kiini Ibura Salaam

On Wednesday night, Alice Smith ended a brief tour for her new album She at New York City’s Bowery Ballroom. Alice is modern woman with an old-school style: She boasts a riveting stage presence, mind-blowing vocal and breath control, and a raw realness that cuts to the quick. Her voice—the unquestionable centerpiece of her performance—is uniquely throaty and earthy, with a grown-ass-woman depth. Captivating the audience from the opening of the show to the final note at the end of the three-song encore, she delivered a full-bodied, incandescent, and startling performance.

The evening began with “Cabaret.” She sang the acapella intro from the wings as if to tell the audience—this is my instrument, this is what you have come to witness, this is the gift I plan to slay you with. And slay us she did. Barring a brief interlude in which she flirtatiously asked if we liked her dress—which was skin-tight and sheer when the light hit it; her hair—which was poufy, old school glamour; and the lights—which skittered around trying to keep up with her, she didn’t bother chatting us up, introducing songs, or providing us with background. On this night, she came to sing. She blew through the Bowery Ballroom like a freight train with a mission. If her mission was to ensure that everyone in attendance would follow her siren’s song to its final whisper, she succeeded.

In a generous set, she covered both her new album She and her critically acclaimed debut, For Lovers, Dreamers & Me. Halfway through the evening, when I was already dizzy and intoxicated on the deliciousness of her performance, she ripped into her cover of Cee Lo Green’s “Fool for You.”  The whole evening could have been encapsulated in that performance. I’ve heard her rendition of “Fool for You” on YouTube as well as live at the AfroPunk festival—the song obviously speaks to her. Those renditions are fantastic, and yet don’t hold a candle to the performance she threw down at the Bowery Ballroom. The potency in her performance is in the power of her voice, the womanly conversational tone of her phrasing, and the fierce passion she feels for whatever lyric she’s singing. Her singing is a demand that you feel—the echoes of your past, the vibrato of her voice, the heartbreak of humanity. Live, Alice introduces extra grit and texture, more dramatic rolling, heightening the vibration of each of her recorded songs. The entire time she sang “Fool for You,” her face was contorted and emphatic as she told us everything we needed to know about that particular love story. You didn’t just feel like you wanted to witness the show, you wanted to step into the skin of the song and show with your energy that you got what she was laying down on you.

Another writer mentioned what a difference a few years make. It’s true that when Alice started performing years ago, she seemed to undersell her physical presentation. She wore button-down shirts and jeans, glasses and cut-off shorts. Her clothing seemed to assert that she was here to sing. There is something in her demeanor that radiates the message that she won’t be pandering to the audience. She’s not here to titillate. On Wednesday night, the woman that stood before us did not need to dress down to let us know what she was about. Her curves on display did not signal that she had become a puppet or the type of performer who plays to the audience for thrills. The body conscious dresses and out-to-there hair just seemed to demonstrate that she had sunken that much deeper into her own skin. That now, all these years later, there was more to her—more depth to her voice, more air in her lungs, more scars on her heart. She was radiant and well seasoned. During her absence she seems to have been developing into a performer that fully and unapologetically embodies her full self. If you see an Alice Smith concert date in a city near you, buy the ticket. Your soul, ears, and heart will thank you for it.

(Editor’s note: While not from the same performance, this rendition of Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over” captures the energy and vibe on display on Wednesday night.)

Additional link:

• Alice Smith official

Kiini Ibura Salaam is recent alum of the Bold As Love reading series Sundays @.  She is a writer, painter, and traveler from New Orleans, Louisiana whose work is rooted in eroticism, speculative events, women’s perspectives, and artistic freedom. Her collection Ancient, Ancient –winner of the 2012 James Tiptree Award–spins sensual tales of the fantastic, the dark, and the magical. Visit her Website or follow her on Twitter.

The truth is, this is all Andrea Clarke’s fault.

A couple of Saturdays ago, I was listening to Andrea’s show on WBAI, Sister From Another Planet where, for nearly an hour, she was killing it from wall to wall.  I know she started with Alice Coltrane’s “Journey To Satchidananda”.  I can’t remember if there was anything else I was familiar with, but I can tell you it was a headnod-inducing set.  And it was the song she played at the end that really made me stop reading and listen. Part of the reason, I think, was that the song is over 16 minutes long, so it had plenty of time to sneak up on me and work its way into my head.

After some necessary chatter (it was, and still is, pledge season for WBAI; you should support it here), I found out the group is called The Brother Moves On.

Now, once I found out more about this group, I was mad at my South African friends for holding out on me.  The band’s name is a play on “Brother Mouzone,” the character from HBO’s The Wire.

Like Kenya’s Just A Band, The Brother Moves On is an art collective.  Their music has been described as experimental South African art rock.  I guess that’s owing to the jazzy, more freeform elements that their music can evoke.  The song that captivated me–”Wenu Wetla”–is taken from their 2011 recording, The Golden Wake EP.  Get this: The album is a live recording done at a performance art event that was staged as a funeral wake for their departed friend, known only as Mr. Gold.  Yeah.  Powerful stuff. Definitely some conjuring going on throughout.

An aside: When I’m outta here, I want y’all to send me home like this.

Another kinda random: I hear these guys and it strikes me that BLK JKS isn’t such an anomaly.  There’s a lot, sonically, the two bands have in common.  Have a listen and compare for yourself.

As I mentioned, this entire song is over 16 minutes, but it’s well worth it.  Funny, it’s the last song on the EP, but you’ll hear references to them finally being able to start the program”.  Whatever order, just put on the headphones and prepare to be swept up.  We’ve got The Brother Moves On on heavy rotation here in our offices.  If you find yourself continually pressing rewind, remember: It’s all Andrea Clarke’s fault, and for that we should all be grateful.

There are two albums from The Brother Moves On, both available on bandcamp.  The first, as noted above, is The Golden Wake EP.  The second is simply called ETA and contains remixes of two songs, “Good Times” and “Ya’khalimbazo”.

Get to know the band a bit here:

Additional links:

• The Brother Moves On official
• Andrea Clarke’s Sister From Another Planet on WBAI-FM
• Download TBMO’s OkayAfrica mixtape here

Speaking of Ricardo Iamuuri, check him out here with fellow Pittsburgh artists Formula 412 who, in 2011 took home “Best Group” honors in the Pittsburgh Hip Hop Awards.  Here, Iamuuri adds soulful counterpoint to bandleader Masai Turner’s laser-focused flow.

Just getting to know this band.  From what I’m learning, they want to be examples of another point of view and more honest stories for hip hop fans, one that’s not all full of bragging or swearing up and down that they’re getting paid.

Additional link:

• Formula 412′s YouTube channel