Welcome back to another action-packed Tuesdays With Lazerbeak! This past Sunday marked the 10-year anniversary of P.O.S’ first nationally released album Audition, which was basically the record that put Stef (and Doomtree) on the map. Good god, I’m definitely still in shock that this came out a true decade ago.
Here’s a quick video that Stef made with the help of his son/camera guy Lincoln about Audition‘s big double-digit birthday and what he’s got in store this year. Check it out below. I can attest that the new songs he’s working on are absolute crushers. Can’t wait to get some of those out this year.
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In addition to being Stef’s first big album, Audition was also the first nationally released album that I ever landed beats on, and I still hold it and that time period very near and dear to my heart. It came out just one week after my band The Plastic Constellations released our first nationally released album, Crusades, on Frenchkiss Records, and I vividly remember the unrealistic concept of being in my early 20’s and feeling like we just might all take over the world. We spent the next year on the road realizing that it was gonna probably take a lot more than putting out a couple CDs to accomplish that, but those were definitely some of my first glimpses that music could potentially be a viable (ahem, modest) career path. Plus I was 23 and Slug and Craig Finn (two dudes who I grew up listening to) were featured on my beats. You couldn’t tell me nothing.
Rhymesayers is running a special sale on all formats of Audition this month if you’ve never checked it out or simply lost it in your car years back. Grab it HERE from iTunes and HERE from Fifth Element. Shouts to RSE for giving Stef the initial platform to get his music out over the past decade, which in turn raised the profile of Doomtree in our very early days. Here’s a handful of videos from Audition to revisit and be reminded of the fact that we were all pretty much little tiny kids when these came out.
P.O.S feat. Slug – “Bleeding Hearts Club”
P.O.S – “Half-Cocked Concepts”
P.O.S – “Yeah Right (Science, Science)”
Speaking of album anniversaries (SEGUE SEGUE), Doomtree’s All Hands just turned one years old!
2015 was a truly crazy year for the whole crew, as the dudes spent a good nine months on the road to get the word out about All Hands. I know it only came out a year ago, but it definitely feels a lot longer than that when you factor in that we started collecting beats for this beast probably a good 3-4 years ago. There was a lot of grinding in between all of that and I know we’re all happy to be winding down the album cycle and focusing in on various solo projects for a bit. We’ll still be popping up every so often as a crew this year though. More on that real soon. In the meantime, here are the six music videos that we shot for All Hands. Not bad at all. Thanks to all the tremendous directors and crews that worked with us on these. If you’ve somehow been sleeping under a rock for the past year and still haven’t heard the album you can pick up All Hands on iTunes HERE and at the Doomtree Webstore HERE. Enjoy!
Doomtree – “Gray Duck” (dir. by Andrew Melby)
Doomtree – “Final Boss” (dir. by Maria Juranic)
Doomtree – “Beastface” (dir. by Isaac Gale)
Doomtree – “.38 Airweight” (dir. by Adam Dunn)
Doomtree – “Generator” (dir. by James Gundersen)
Doomtree – “Heavy Rescue” (dir. by P.O.S)
Switching gears a little, let’s get into some big time solo shows coming up this month. Dessa is currently in the air on her way over to New Zealand and Australia for a big tour supporting the dudes in Welcome to Night Vale, where she’ll be joined by the unstoppable Aby Wolf. Several of these shows have already sold out, but check out the Events section HERE for all the details and ticket info of the remaining dates.
Our very own Mike Mictlan will be hitting the road this month with Prof for the Gasoline Run mini-tour. They’ll be rolling through La Crosse, Eau Claire, Madison, Minneapolis, and Sioux City in the next couple of weeks. Check out the exact dates below and grab your tickets right HERE.
P.O.S will be popping up in a bunch of different cities over the next couple months. First up is Seattle for Onry Ozzborn’s album release party with Grayskul, Kimya Dawson, and Rob Sonic. Grab your tickets HERE.
Then Stef will head back to the Midwest for Daytrotter’s first annual Daytrotter Downs fest in Davenport, IA on February 18th. Grab tickets HERE.
In March he’ll will swing through the Dakotas for a pair of shows in Fargo on 3/11 (tickets HERE) and Sioux Falls on 3/12 (tickets HERE). Later Babes will also be on board for the Sioux Falls joint. Check out their sweet flyer below.
Alright, I think that about does it for Doomtree-related news this week. I want to get into a seriously epic Local Bonus Jams post today, since this state has been flooded with excellent music all month long. In fact, Polica just dropped one of my favorite videos of all time. Check out “Wedding” below and get AMPED for their upcoming United Crushers album coming next month. Shouts to Isaac Gale for hands-down making the best vidz in the game.
Polica – “Wedding”
Up next is Kill The Vultures with a video for “Topsoil” off of last year’s masterpiece Carnelian. God this album is so good.
Kill The Vultures – “Topsoil”
Night Moves is back! They’ve got a new lineup and a new album dropping on Domino later this Spring. Check out “Denise, Don’t Wanna See You Cry” below. Super into this band.
Night Moves – “Denise, Don’t Wanna See You Cry”
Lizzo is gearing up to celebrate her sold-out album release show this Saturday behind last year’s excellent Big GRRRL, Small World record. Check out the killer video for “Humanize” below.
Lizzo – “Humanize”
And now for a double dose of Lizzo. Check out this sweet song that she wrote with Sadie from Speedy Ortiz for Google. I love both of these women and the separate music they make. So great to hear them on the same track for once. Perfect pairing.
Sad13 x Lizzo – “Basement Queens”
Dizzy Fae has been blowing up out of the Twin Cities as of late. I’m late to the party as usual, but I really like this newish video and song she dropped back in the Fall. Definitely looking forward to hearing a ton more from her. Check out “Color Me Bad” below.
Dizzy Fae – “Color Me Bad”
Our good friend Medium Zach recently dropped a loosie for all the crate diggers out there. Check out “The Art of the Flip Pt. 1” below and watch how the pros do it. Definitely hoping for a series out of this one.
Medium Zach – “The Art of the Flip Pt. 1”
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Mac Irv is back with a new vizual off of his upcoming album Misfit: 55411. I really like this one. Make sure you check for Mac opening up for Prof and Mike on all their February dates as well. Such a great lineup.
Mac Irv – “What Up”
Morly recently dropped a beautiful new song off of her upcoming debut EP. Check out “The Choir” below. Super pumped to check out the full project.
Morly – “The Choir”
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tiny deaths are back with a sweet new song that will end up on Claire and Grant’s upcoming EP. Check out the new video for “ever” below.
tiny deaths – “ever”
St. Thomas’ own Nick Jordan dropped a cool video for “Flavors” not too long back. Huge shouts to him on getting some traction here in the city and also for all the help he and a bunch of other amazing St. Thomas University volunteers contributed to the Doomtree Zoo. Check out “Flavors” below.
Nick Jordan – “Flavors”
OK! Consider that your Local Bonus Jams Mixtape for the week. I’ll leave you with a couple quick Bonus Baby Pics before calling it a day. Last week was a little crazy, so the only pictures I could find were of me continuing to wear this stupid Minnie Mouse Princess du-rag while acting out a new character I’ve developed called “Scary Daddy.” It pretty much goes like this: I put on the Minnie Mouse hat, make semi-questionable scary faces, and chase Penny all over the house. She in turn yells “Scary Daddy!!!!” at the top of her lungs and cracks up non-stop when I catch her. It’s completely humiliating and extremely rewarding all at the same time, so there’s definitely that. Without further ado, I give you Young Nelpz and Scary Daddy.
Aaaaaaaaand there you have it. I hope you all have a wonderful week gearing up for Super Bowl Sunday. If any one of you out there hates sports and is interested in watching my kids all day long just holler. I can definitely pay you in nacho cheese. Go Panthers and I’ll see you all next Tuesday for another round of TWL!
— Beak
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